Atmosphere Comparison

[Jim]

The endless chatter of weather.

[chumley]

[JasonCleghorn]

Yeah, that ain't good...

[The_Dude]

I think this El Nino guy needs to check his data. Either that or our weather reporters have gone the same way of the 24 hour news cycle... :STP:

[chumley]

Funniest thing I've read in a while. From NWS Tucson. Emphasis mine.

If you can believe it, we've actually got some non-zero rain chances in the forecast Thursday evening into Friday!

[big_load]

Winter has returned to NJ. We had snow on Sunday and Monday (washed out by subsequent rain). Temps tonight will be in the teens, and snow is predicted again on Saturday. I wouldn't mind being in Tucson right now.

[Jim]

Yes, the models do show some promising QPF for the next 120 and 168 hours. The models may be less and less accurate as we progress thru April and May, but this might be the first real rain in months, for us and southern California, too. They had some last month, anything for us is probably good, at this point.

[johnlp]

Life was so much simpler when it didn't rain.

[chumley]

@johnlp
I purposely did laundry and hung it outside tonight. Then I went for a bike ride. I did my part! Only got a few drops on the bike and rescued the clothes before they got wet again. Tomorrow I'm gonna take my truck to get washed!

[arizona_water]

From a statewide perspective, precipitation is more critical for Lower Colorado River Basin Supply than to wildfire suppression. Of course these two things are not mutually exclusive, but supply affects all of us in AZ - every single day.

[chumley]

@arizona_water
Interesting. What is considered to be lower Colorado?

I'll defer to you as the water guy, but what hits the Colorado below Lake Havasu/CAP can't feed much of Arizona besides Yuma?

Wildfire suppression is an added bonus, but I've always thought that rain/snow over the watersheds feeding the Verde/Salt/Gila Rivers are most important for the population centers in Arizona.

Not my area of expertise though...I'd love to learn more about AZ hydrology!

[RedRoxx44]

Had some rain last night and a nice odour to the desert this morning

[johnlp]

3/8+ inch at my house!

[FOTG]

@chumley
I also took matters into my own hand and watered the front lawn last night. I am going to up the anty tonight though and park outside of the garage with my windows down ;)

[rwstorm]

.34 inch SW Tucson overnight (from 8 PM to 1 AM). Wonderful.

[azbackpackr]

@chumley
If I may: The Lower Colorado River basin is supplied largely by the snow in the Rockies, via the Green and Colorado River, and the San Juan River, and other tributaries. The Lower Colorado River officially begins at Lees Ferry. So, even though the snowmelt is mostly from Colorado and Wyoming, and some from New Mexico, there is a certain amount allotted to the Lower Basin states, which are Arizona, Nevada and California.

Here is info about the Colorado River Compact of 1922, and more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River_Compact
http://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g1000/lawofrvr.html

[Jim]

And if one looks at the map of the snowpack produced by the Bureau of Reclamation, the San Juan Basin is well below the median or mean for this date, so this storm series may help bring up some of the seasonal totals in places that were drier this winter. That includes southern California, and the southern and central Sierra Nevada. The Salt-Verde-Gila Rivers are also Lower Colorado tributaries, and so more precipitation in Arizona is helpful for local reservoirs.

A sampling of official and rainlog reported totals I noticed:

NWS Phoenix Sky Harbor reports 1/4 of an inch (0.25")
PIMA Flood Control, Mount Lemmon recorded 0.83", but a station near the WoR had 0.31"
Rainlog, someone near Glendale and 16th ST reports 0.75"

Most reporting places were around 0.15 to .3" in the desert.

[tibber]

almost 5/8 at my house in N Phx. I put my plants out from under the patio at 6PM last nite. I don't think the rain started until around 11. My oleanders are leaning over a bit too from all that rain as they are just starting to bloom.

Update: slightly more than an inch for the weekend.

[chumley]

.59 at my house. Much more than expected. Looks like a small area east of downtown into Tempe and south Scottsdale got a nice band of steady rain from 10-1 or so last night. Much lower amounts in other parts of the valley.

[FOTG]

@chumley
Got any totals for the mountains? Mazzys, Supes, Ancha...

[chumley]

@friendofThundergod
All less than my backyard.

Mountains south of Tucson look like they got set up in a nice rain band last night too though. I don't think there's anywhere in AZ that got even 1"