HikeArizona.COM

The endless chatter of weather.

Let's add it all up so far:

tibber wrote: Union Hills and Cave Creek area
Aug 2 - 3/4" in an hour
Aug 3 - almost 1/2" in an hour
Aug 12 - 3/4" in an hour
Aug 13 - was raining this AM but don't suspect it lasted long. (update 8-14-14, gauge added another 1/4" in the AM)
Aug 19 - 2 7/8 (includes 1" between 6-6:50AM)
Streets were high with running water almost to curb
Our 132 unit community drainage is full and NOT draining by 4PM.

Sept 8 - 3" between 2AM and 7AM
Surprisingly the streets were not running that high with running water vs Aug 19.
Surprisingly the community drainage had mostly drained by 4PM vs Aug 19.

I do believe my area has met the PHX rain quota for the year at this point ;) .

Hope all this bodes well for wildflowers next spring.

There's a flood channel that runs from Acoma and 32nd St (and probably further north from there), southeast towards McCormick Ranch. They've actually put a golf course in there between Cactus and McCormick Ranch. Anyway, this morning and afternoon it had a good flow of water through it, but nothing flood like. I thought that kind of odd, since at the very least it probably drains Lookout Mountain ...

Well, totals around Tucson vary widely, from eh, to very impressive. Some areas of town did really well, such as the Catalina MTS, the Pusch area and foothills, and even the Rincons, to some extent. However, Flag and northern AZ, haven't gotten much.

Now, it may happen, and the storm may develop and drag over the western rim, but it seems like once again, in the first weeks of September after I moved to Arizona, a forecast was made for a tropical system to dump lots of rain in the northern parts of Arizona, and once again it was a dud. This time, it moved west and was out in California and Nevada. Kingman did well, I know, but Flag, the Rim the Reservation, and so on, they haven't really had much. Will it happen? I would bet, "no".

azbackpackr wrote:Meanwhile no rain in Williams.

Did you end up getting much up there in Williams?

chumley wrote:The road to Peralta was a muddy mess this morning. Very slick and 4wd a must. The washes were running but not dangerously. By afternoon, the rain had stopped and the road had begun to dry out. By tomorrow, you might even be able to get a sedan out there again if you don't mind a few big puddles (lakes?) and some serious mud.

According to some of what I saw here at the end of the day, it's already mostly dry.

Not much in Williams.

As of this morning (9-9-14), my 2014 total precip is up to 6.30 inches, all but 0.53 during the monsoon period. July 1.28, August 2.52, September 1.97. I only received 1.22 from yesterday's madness, which is one of the lower totals for the Tucson area.

I see from the NWS that Flagstaff Airport picked up a bit over 1/2 an inch over night, but from radar estimates this morning that was a small cell which focused over the airport and came from the area to the SW, so that was not a widespread total at all. It doesn't appear that northern AZ got or will get those widespread impressive totals as originally forecast. Not saying, "I told you so", as they might have been nice, it is just that these tropical lows without fronts and especially when they decay and feed the monsoon flow, they just seem to be very hard to predict. I don't think anyone would have expected Phoenix to get what it did, and Flagstaff to get very little. Flagstaff still had a very above normal monsoon season, and there is still the chance of continued storms for a while. The Peaks and Elden (places I care about) got some good rain totals last week, so they will hardly be dry and suffering.

Interesting side note, I guess it is from the super wet summer of 2013, as this past winter and spring were not wet despite a late season rain and snow event in April, the young trees on Elden had impressive large flushes of growth this year, that you can see by examining the yearly growth flushes. Compared to previous years, at least. It is especially noticeable as you near the top of Elden, above about 9,000'. Despite the recent years with very dry winters, it demonstrates that wetter summers seem to benefit the forest more than winter snow, at least on Elden. I would expect that the growth for 2015 could also be pretty impressive, since this summer was really wet, again.

Looks like Williams got .59" downtown today. Just a sprinkle at the airport though.

chumley wrote:Looks like Williams got .59" downtown today. Just a sprinkle at the airport though.

I wasn't there! I drove to the White Mountains in the morning. Got to Pinetop maybe around 10:30 and it was raining pretty good. I had errands to run which backtracked me to Show Low, which by then was very sunny. The drive on 60 to Springerville was very pretty. In fact, if you have not driven from Vernon to Springerville lately, now's the time. The grasslands are green and there are lots of flowers. This lasts the blink of an eye, and then it goes back to being brown.

Off topic, but it's very strange to be back here after being away for 10 months. Very odd to drive by my house and see unfamiliar vehicles and things in the yard. I have arranged to visit my renters today (Wed.) Otherwise, it appears not a thing has changed.

The dew point in Flagstaff is 37 degrees! Oh, when will that get down here and monsoon season end!?!

First snow of the season 30 degrees

Wear warm socks please......and real shoes!

So, we sit and await Tropical Storm Odile. (Thanks, rw)

No we don't. It is time for this to end, and for dry weather with low humidity to return.
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/twc/monsoon/dew ... racker.php

Go down to the bottom graph for September. It is time for this awful monsoon to DIE!!!

Winter rain and snow, sure, stable, predictable, reservoir bolstering, soil infiltrating winter lows are OK, in season, but this horrendous humidity, and unwelcome tropical deluges of soil eroding, reservoir silting, flooding rains need to stop.

Well, I guess the gods have their orders now...

azbackpackr wrote:Well, I guess the gods have their orders now...

We'll see about that!

I looked back at my calendar from last September and this coming weekend was the one when I went to CO and there was a cold front coming through on Sunday, which pushed out the monsoon. On Monday there was snow on the mountains, dry weather prevailed, and fall came in. So, maybe this storm will be the last of it, and next weekend will start out with dry fall weather, or at least much reduced in humidity in the Flagstaff area, as I hope to hike, and not sit around like last time, but HIKE Philomena and Humphrey and maybe Elden.

Has the sky fallen yet? I want to hike Pusch today, so I don't sit around on 2 days off, but I have my doubts.

.25 of an inch at my home in Payson and Baker Butte Lookout above the "Rim" has had .95 of an inch. Tucson was to get slammed so I postponed a trip until next week.