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The endless chatter of weather.

It was really coming down a couple hours ago, and there's still some light rain. Rainbow Wash, which is just south of here, got at least 1.75in. That's what I'm talkin' about!

Its about time we in the NE part of PHX got some. :worthy:

77 degrees and 1/4 in rain so far

Patrick L wrote:Rainbow Wash, which is just south of here, got at least 1.75in. That's what I'm talkin' about!

Rainbow and three gauges west of it are all over 2" now.

Bombs away in my neighborhood of SW Tucson this afternoon. Total rain today 1.31, most fell in 35 minutes. Streets and washes running strong. August precip here was way below normal until today.

It's actually been quite dry over most of the state since the beginning of the month, until yesterday or so. I liked it, but I know that isn't how it "ought to be". Most of the solid monsoon season total thus far have been from July's heavy accumulations. Except in Douglas, which was well below until just recently. I was wondering if it had something to do with El Nino. I suppose, as long as I am not living up here, an El Nino with average to above average December to April precip would be nice. Maybe the Peaks would benefit from it, and then I would hike old Humphrey. Colorado did not deliver last winter, at all.

Looking at the river data page I notice the Salt is at a runnable level. Normally dry rivers and creeks in central AZ are up. Other creeks show spikes over the past few days. http://waterdata.usgs.gov/az/nwis/current/?type=flow

@azbackpackr
Thanks for the link. pretty useful.

azbackpackr wrote:Normally dry rivers and creeks in central AZ are up

Continental Golf course was running about a Class III at 5am today when I drove over the bridge.

I wonder..... If I launched my kayak in chaparral park when it's flowing like this, could I be issued a stupid boater ticket

Here is precip data at my house in Tucson as of 8-24-2012:

August...2.41 Monsoon (since June 15)...6.46 Year to Date...7.45

Any idea how much the Catalina, or other mountain areas over 6,000' have received since June 1, what since winter was so dry down there.

Looks like the crazy guy talks to himself, but It's beautiful up here. Nice, mild, and dry. Some more rain forecast for the holiday weekend, but maybe we'll get lucky and have an early end to the monsoon. I'd rather have a wet winter, and a dry fall, than a lingering monsoon and a dry winter. I think the El Nino has had an affect, as both Flag and Tucson were below normal in August, though well above normal in July. Flag was better than Tucson in August, but Tucson had almost 200% of normal in July. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a blog which no one will read, to write.

I'm on my way to the Sangre de Cristos and some other wandering in CO. I'll be happy if it doesn't snow.

No one reads blogs. That's why I don't have one. I don't keep a personal journal, either, since who's going to read the darned thing except me? I tried to keep one for Costa Rica. I wasn't too good about it, though. I should have. But I did kind of keep a CR journal here on HAZ, and enjoyed receiving comments.

azbackpackr wrote:No one reads blogs.

Some people do...I myself read them on occasion, mostly when I see a link to an interesting one on FB, which almost exclusively tend to be photography related. But in order for people to read your blog, you need to have a following, which basically means marketing it somehow (FB for example). Just writing a blog and simply expecting people to blindly come across it does not bring in readers.

Really hoping this week and weekend are the last of the monsoon this year, and the El Nino has something to do with that and as a result we have a pretty wet winter, especially on the Peaks. Got to get at least 1 good summit in. Colorado has been clearing up and dew point have been in the teens in the central part of the state where I hope to go for a few days in 2 weeks. They are talking about a back door cold front affecting them early next week. Here comes color? It's really starting to look and feel like September out here, and I greatly look forward to no more rain for a while.

I'll bet Camp Creek Falls is gushing today....Wow! Anybody up for a quick, easy, albeit wet, Hike today????

This is one of those frustrating occasions when forecasters seem to have no clue. How can computer models not notice a "disturbance" or whatever in the atmosphere that causes the kind of widespread rain that is falling in central AZ right now? I can forgive the local storms that have dropped nearly 3" ... those are anomalies. But there is just a huge plume of moisture that has been dropping steady (dare I say "winter-like"?) rain for several hours. And as of this morning, the "chance of rain" was still forecast at only 20%! It's not as if this is a heat-of-the-day, convection-based result. How is it that the models couldn't see that the ingredients were in place to produce this? :SB:

chumley wrote:How is it that the models couldn't see that the ingredients were in place to produce this?

Personally I care not. What I care about that overrides is that it is now 73F in our area on Sept 7th at 12 noon