Scattered Showers

Clouds on the Catalinas at 7:35 am MST this morning. View at bottom from Summerhaven shows they had a skiff of snow up there.

Light showers yesterday ocuurred mainly over and around the mountains - note one site has gone bonkers. I didn't note any sprinkles here at the house.

The GEFS plumes for the next week indicate some chances for light showers today and tomorrow (above); temperatures warm toward the century mark by the end of week (below); with strong winds returning by the weekend (second below). 

Winds were strong around much of the state yesterday. The airport hit 37 mph; Douglas and Pioneer Airfield reported 47 mph; Winslow hit 49 mph; and the windy site at Gutherie was highest I found at 59 mph.

May Fourth

 

Today is often considered Star Wars Day.

May Day

 

Afternoon showers over the Catalinas on April 5th.

During all of April I measured only 0.01" of rain after a brief, pre-sunrise, sprinkle on the 19th. There was also a Trace on the afternoon of the 5th. This April came in as the eighth driest, since I started my records back in 1999. There had been 7 Aprils with no precipitation. Also of note was the earliest recording of a high temperature of 100 F at the airport on April 11th.

Dust Devil

 

Photo of a spectacular dust devil - taken near Casa Grande on Easter Sunday.

Today Is Earth Day

 

Dry Weather Continues

Perfectly clear skies over the Catalinas at 7:15 am MST this morning.

Even though a strong trough at 500 mb crosses Arizona on the 29th, the models currently keep it moisture-starved, with no precipitation. Plumes above are from the 06 UTC runs of the GEFS. Forecast below is from the GFS 06 UTC run, showing no precipitation over Arizona through 06 UTC on May 7th.

Light Showers

Early am showers over north side of metro at 3:40 am MST this morning.

ALERT observations for 24-hours ending at 7:00 am MST this morning (above) show only a few sites with 0.04" or more. However, observations from MesoWest for same 24-hours (below) indicate considerably more sites with light amounts less than 0.04". Here at house we had 0.01" around 3 to 4 am MST. The GEFS plumes yesterday (see below) were a reasonable forecast for the area.

Strange Forecast

Venus rising over the Rincons before sunrise yesterday morning.

Forecast from 11:00 am MST yesterday (above) seemed a bit strange, calling for blowing dust between 3 and 4 pm - assume that was a typo.

Forecast for maximum wind gusts yesterday (above) went for 33 mph at the airport. Winds were gusty during the afternoon, with the highest gust at airport coming in at 36 mph. However, there were no restrictions to visiblity at the airport.

Current GEFS plumes for QPF for the airport are shown below. All members are forecasting measurable (but very light) amounts. Current NWS forecast calls for only 30 percent POPs at the airport. At bottom is WRF-RR forecast (from 12 UTC today) indicating that precipitation stays north of our area through 5:00 pm tomorrow.