In our last chapter, we saw that photos, perfectly fine ones here on the computer, were ending up corrupted when they arrived at WP for some reason. Unlike many computer problems, re-booting my own computer did not cure it. The next best thing to do, of course, is to wait and see if it just goes away2. And today, waiting has seemed to have cured the problem, since all the test photos up loaded got in OK. Check below.
Looks like our thick mid-level clouds overhead now have enough depth and moist air below them to drop measurable rain over the next 24-36 h. Will be happy if we get 0.10 inches here in Catalina. U of AZ mod total (last night’s 11 PM run) for here is more, 0.10 to 0.25 inches category, even better.
Some January 1st, 2015 snow photos. 3 inches total; 2 inches depth on ground at dawn (due to melting and settling).





OK, one more…. So far so good, suggests file corruption problem, wherever it came from, has been rectified somehow.

The weather way ahead
Ignoring the very light, sprinkly rains1 in the area now, ones that won’t amount to much, and since seeing predicted rain for us in the models is something like a little Valium for you, I thought I would post a couple of recently predicted Catalina rain boppers.


Of course, if we got all the rain forecast in the medium range, 10-15 days, that the models predict, we could grow pineapples and mangoes here without irrigation, so you have to keep that in mind as you look at these maps.
HOWEVER, CM, your own Catalina Cloud Maven person, DOES think that substantial rain from one of these is ahead for us, even if they come and go on the model runs.
Why?
Those “Lorenz plots” from the NOAA spaghetti factory. Of course, you knew I would say that, because you would say that, too.
Those plots are indicating a great chance for troughs in the lower flow band of the jet stream to be here in the Southwest in the middle to latter part of January. So, its not certain, but you lean that way. This is something you’ll also want to pass along to your less weatherwise neighbors today. To be wise in weather is to be great in a small way.
The End
PS: 3 F now in Asheville/Fletcher, NC, where bro lives. Man, they got kudzu there, too. How bad is that?
——————————
1“Showers” is not the correct terminology for the of rain we have in the area right now. “Showers” of rain are marked by sudden changes in intensity since they are associated with cumuliform clouds that vary greatly in the horizontal, while light rain that changes intensity gradually falls from mostly flat or stratiform clouds that change gradually in the horizontal.
2I think it was Bob Metcalf, the inventor of the ethernet, who said:
“Good things come to those who wait.”