“The juice is loose”; and about that odd morning shower

The title it refers to a flood of water vapor that will cloak the entire State of Arizona, vapor that could condense here and there into a real flood; the “juice” up there, will be “loosed.” Daily rain totals somewhere in the State may rival any in the country for a few days. I am sure most of you know all about this. Let’s hope we get some! Clouds are topping the Catalinas this AM, always a good sign.

Had 0.73 inches here in Sutherland Heights; fell in two episodes during the day and evening yesterday. NE corner of Saddlebrooke really got pounded yesterday late; 1.73 inches at Horsehoe Bend. You can find a roundup of precip here from Pima County, and later, more reports from rainlog. org and CoCoRahs. Another inch fell on top of Ms. Lemmon, too, and 2 inches down there in the Guijas Mountains, just SW of us. It was a good day!

A side bar about golf litter…

——————-

Since we have recently learned that Saddlebrooke golfers seem to run off immediately when sudden downpours and lightning daggers strike at them, leaving golf ball litter right there on the course, look for golf ball-sized golf balls in the CDO wash today. There were dozens of golf balls in the wash right here in Catalina the last time a big cloudburst hit Saddlebrooke. An example of that kind of litter, remaining from that day a couple of weeks ago, is still in the wash:

8:29 AM. CDO wash near Golder Ranch Drive. Golf ball litter, center. I got pretty upset, but left it for others to see how golfing can pollute our rivers, lakes and dry washes. — 8:29 AM. CDO wash near Golder Ranch Drive. Golf ball litter can be seen at center. I was pretty upset when I saw it.

End of golfing topic side bar

———————–

As you likely know, with dewpoints returning into the 60s, a tropical river of moist air is developing around the giant upper level high, one that once squatted on top of us, but has now relocated to Oklahoma! You can see the welcome movement of this feature, one that produced June in August here for awhile, here from the U of WA or here in a more fluid view looking at the water vapor imagery. Below is a nice compact view of our current 500 millibar situation from San Francisco State’s Regional Weather Server:

The 500 millibar map for 5 PM AST, August 23rd. Note tiny "H" next to Oklahoma! City. Stands for "cloud hell"; its tough having any when you're under the "H." — The 500 millibar map for 5 PM AST, August 23rd. Note tiny “H” next to Oklahoma! City. Stands for “cloud hell”; its tough having any good ones when you’re under the “H.” Note arc of clouds from about Mazatlan to Laramie, WY. We’re in that moist stream, a kind of moisture river, now rotating around the Big H. Yay.

On to clouds…a good early start, Cumulus clouds were streaming toward the W from Mt. Lemmon almost as soon as the sun came up.

8:55 AM. A very good sign for an enhanced chance of rain; Cumulus spawning off Ms. Lemmon this early under a clear sky.

10:31 AM. An hour and a half later, a stream of clouds drifted off Ms. Lemmon; they were about to start raining. — 10:31 AM. An hour and a half later, a stream of Cumulus clouds drifted off Ms. Lemmon; they were about to start raining on only Sutherland Heights, making us feel pretty special.

SONY DSC — 10:36 PM. A fine shaft of rain begins to fall from modest line of Cumulus congestus clouds that have reached the ice-forming level just upstream of Sutherland Heights. For these modest clouds to trail over Sutherland Heights and Catalina with rain, sometimes reaching “moderate” levels is a rare event. Usually rain from such clouds falls out on the mountains before it reaches Catalina with anything more than a sprinkle. We received 0.14 inches over about 40 minutes of rain from these guys! It was a joyful time because there was hardly any other cloud cover; it was just us getting rained on! When looked to the right (S) and to the left (N), yesterday, and it was clear, yet raining! Really was a fun time.

You can review the day here, courtesy of the U of AZ. In this film you will see how small our raining clouds were yesterday morning!

Things quieted down for pretty much the remainder of the day until our late afternoon and evening “bloom”, something we’ve been experiencing over the past week or so. There was a sudden invigoration of Cumulus clouds that began around 4-4:30 PM, leading to some remarkable, large and dark Cumulus bases, ones that powered up into full blown Cumulonimbus clouds that propagated from the north and east. The middle and upper level winds were trying to carry them north, but that north wind that accompanied a heavy downpour toward Oracle caused an uplift and cloud invigoration over us here in Catalina.