HikeArizona.COM

The endless chatter of weather.

Just a trace in my part of Tucson Sunday. Still a desperado waiting...maybe today.

@rwstorm - pretty weird storm. I looked up the local rainfall around town last night. It appears the storm was centered directly over my neighborhood off of Thornydale. We had 2.4 inches registered close by but go a few miles south and they had half of that. Go into to Tucson proper and I saw lots of trace measurements. Actually had to detour around a wash to get home because it was filling up so fast and I didn't feel comfortable driving through it.

Got some rain in Yuma and lots of wind. Power outages in Buckeye Gila Bend and Dateland.?Hit around 11-12 last night. Gila Bend was back up but Dateland and parts of Buckeye were still out around 6 when I came back through.

Under the old dew point rule, tomorrow will be the 3rd day of qualifying dew points in both Phoenix (55°) and Tucson (54°), making Sunday, July 8th the start of the monsoon in both cities for 2018.

This is one day earlier than the climatological average for both cities.

The arbitrary June 15 date be damned.

@SpiderLegs
Yeah, you are in a favored portion of the Tucson area, me not so much. Living with a swamp cooler and no AC, it has been brutal the last few days. At least I got to enjoy a nice thundershower over in Silver City last Thursday. By the way, Silver City is getting blasted with heavy rain right now.

@rwstorm - I've been gone for almost 25 years, so my lovely wife is trying to convince me that Oro Valley is under the dome that keeps out rain. But after being here a week, I've witnessed at least three separate days of rain and looking out my window right now I hear more coming. Last night the lightning and thunder was spectacular around here.

SpiderLegs wrote: ↑Jul 09 2018 3:09 pm @rwstorm - I've been gone for almost 25 years, so my lovely wife is trying to convince me that Oro Valley is under the dome that keeps out rain. But after being here a week, I've witnessed at least three separate days of rain and looking out my window right now I hear more coming. Last night the lightning and thunder was spectacular around here.

You moved from an avg of 8 to 13 inches of annual rain. Good thing you shied away from the nearby Sonoran Rainforest... Oracle: 24.92 inches annual rainfall!

Absolutely dumping north Phoenix!!

@kelly14
Come on, North Phoenix has seen better days, but it is hardly a dump.

chumley wrote:... I predict the forest closures will be lifted by next weekend. I

good call wrt to the Coconino National Forest!

@chumley
I'll bet you have more than a trace now.

@The_Eagle
.55” at home. But absolutely pummeled at work. At least 1.5” there and crazy wind.

about 3/4 inch of the rain that was able to get in my rain gauge since it was coming in sideways from what I heard.

and for those of you that got Uncle Alfred's Crying in the Drought video, per Denny and me... it worked

and here it is for those of you that didn't get to see/hear it: [ youtube video ]

Nice quarter inch rain here this afternoon with cooler temps thereafter. I loved it and so did my plants.

tibber wrote:about 3/4 inch of the rain that was able to get in my rain gauge since it was coming in sideways from what I heard.

I had a similar experience: there was about .7" of an inch in my rain gauge in Fountain Hills, but the wind was blowing so hard that the rain was almost sideways, so I'm wondering if there wasn't even more rain that what was measured in my gauge

Batten down the hatches Yuma...the monsoon monster is on its way again!

@rwstorm
These past couple of days have been very atypical of the monsoon. Really more developed disturbances that pass through than heat-of-the-day storms. It’s certainly unusual for the western deserts to get this kind of activity over 2 or 3 days, or for a thunderstorm complex to fire in the Mazzies, and hold together for 300 miles moving west-southwest!

Two inches here in Apache Jct but again the wind was fierce and that rain was traveling horizontality.

@chumley
True. The energy from last night's wave held together all the way over the coastal mountains and offshore to at least San Clemente Island (with lots of dust in Anza Borrego to Palm Springs). The flow is unusually strong right now. Looks like a repeat tonight for SoCal. Weird & wild!

The cicadas singing last week was quite the symphony. a rather large and stealthy rattlesnake joined in. In "cobra pose" near my feet I did a near world record backward standing broad jump, cleared a modest sized creosote and nailed the landing with out tearing my meniscus in my knees.

My next visit out in the desert and down from the forest perhaps I can catch a storm.