HikeArizona.COM

The endless chatter of weather.

It is very rare for severe weather to approach Phoenix from the southwest, and while it is not unusual for monsoon storms to "die out" as they approach the heat of the valley from the northeast, I was very surprised to see how quickly severe storms completely vanished yesterday afternoon. Two or three times there were "Severe Thunderstorm Warnings" issued for powerful cells near Ahwatukee, Sun Lakes, and Maricopa, all of which dissipated to barely some blowing dust and a few scattered drops of rain by the time they reached Chandler or Tempe. Very strange. (and disappointing).

The fact that dust storms continue to make a mess of my patio really illustrates how dry this monsoon has been in the open desert south of Phoenix. In a normal year, enough rain has fallen to suppress most of the dust.

Friday's lightning show was impressive.
Watched it together over the White Tanks late Friday eve from atop the Xterra rack in the middle of a field of roses. I may have filled her arms with them before leaving.

BEEBEE wrote:Was there any Hail in the the area of Flagstaff Airport?

Doesn't seem like it.

Good I had a plane there around that time.

Tornado Warning south of Tusayan. There's a few severe cells across the state right now, including west of both Williams and Winslow on I-40, and west of Casa Grande. Looks like it's gonna be an active afternoon!

chumley wrote:It is very rare for severe weather to approach Phoenix from the southwest

looks like there is a cell headed for the valley right now from the sw
It'll probably be more east valley but should cool down the temps even more

I'm all with you on that Joe, but if yesterday is any indication, it'll up and disappear like the Hohokam.

Here's to fall and the dry season. It's cool, it's not summer up here any more, let's dry out already. I've had enough of this weather. I mean, rain and lighting are cool and all, but I just spent a lot of money on the new windshield. Come on!

LOL. I've never had to buy a new windshield. At least not in my opinion, and I'm the guy carrying the wallet. But at every car wash or gas station I ever go to there seems to be somebody who thinks I need to get a new windshield. Not sure why, I can still see through it. Why fix what is sure to have another chip or crack in it the next trip I take? I don't have a truck because it's supposed to look nice. Mine looks like I take it where the best Toyota engineers could only dream for it to go! Chips, cracks, and scratches be pumpkined!

Go to Danny's alot? They always have a guy there trying to "upsell" you ...

I don't think I've ever seen as much rain fall from a non-winter-storm in the Blythe-Needles-Kingman corridor. It's dumping out there today. NWS reporting 3-4 inches in many areas, and flooding aplenty.

It's nice to see some of the normally dry areas get rain, but 3 to 4 inches is a lot of rain. There is a forecast for more severe weather over the next 24 hours, with I-40 and south having potential for more large hail possible. No talk of tornadoes. We hardly need more rain around here. With just another 1/5 of an inch, September will be our wettest month so far. This is usually our dry out month, or it has been in previous years by now.

Just saw a huge cell over the peaks resulted in a flash flood warning for the neighborhoods downstream of the burn area. Hopefully there's been enough revegetation and flood suppression to prevent some of the major damage that occurred last year.

I don't know how that area is. From driving by it last week, it's mostly brown with not a lot of visible vegetation from US 89, but like Kendrick Peak with similar slopes, after a while there is no more soil to to turn to mud and slide, just rock. The same cell blew up over Elden. The erosion on that is the worst I have ever seen. The infrequent but heavy storms really dumped a lot of rain in it this summer. Everything is saturated on it right now, and I expect more erosion on the trail next time I am out.

I'm going to pretend that there's measurable rain in the gauge instead of just calling it a trace. Though the last hour or so has been very pleasant on the patio, down to 78 degrees now. I can't find one radar site that truly reflects the pathetic-ness of this rainfall. They all make it look like there's some kind of deluge going on in the valley right now.

Big thunderstorm on the east side of Elden this afternoon, caused flooding below, I heard. All I got were a few drops on my side of the mountain.

Not a drop of water in my neighborhood in six weeks. Ride my bike to work today. No prizes for who guessed what happened on the way home ... plz:

kingsnake wrote:No prizes for who guessed what happened on the way home ... plz:

Washed my Truck yesterday for the first time in.....Ditto

Jim_H wrote:... but 3 to 4 inches is a lot of rain

The nearest station to me reported 26.6 inches between 8/8 and 9/8. I've had about enough rain for a while.

big_load wrote:

Jim_H wrote:... but 3 to 4 inches is a lot of rain

The nearest station to me reported 26.6 inches between 8/8 and 9/8. I've had about enough rain for a while.