Wind Gusts Monday And Tuesday

Red skies at 6:10 am MST this morning.

Winds with gusts of 35 to 45 mph were common across all of southeast Arizona on Monday and Tuesday. The airport reported 38 mph on Monday and 35 mph yesterday. Pioneer Airfield reported 51 mph, with Gutherie coming at in at 56 mph, both yesterday.

Plumes from 06 UTC this morning (above) indicate a windy weekend ahead. Long-range GFS forecast for precipitation totals (below) keeps most of Arizona dry through the 30th.

Dangerous Wildfire Conditions

View of the Catalinas, with contrail, at 8:30 am MST this morning.

Conditions expected to be windy, hot, and dry today and tomorrow, leading to Red Flag Warnings - map for today's warning area shown above. Current NWS morning forecast is detailed below.

Windy Morning

View of the Catalinas at 7:00 am MST this Saturday morning.

It is quite windy here aong the Rillito this morning - estimated gusts 20 to 30 mph here at the house. Plot of wind gusts at 7:00 am from MesoWest (above).

Current forecast of maximum gusts today (above) from the NWS Forecast Office. GEFS plumes for wind from 06 UTC (below) indicate a windy start to the coming week.

Continued Showers - Updated

Heavy clouds over the Catalinas at 7:30 am MST, with fractus hugging the foothills.

Rain amounts of 0.04" and more covered the northwestern portions of the ALERT network for 24-hours ending at 7:30 am (above). Data for same period from MesoWest (below) show that measurable amounts were more widespread. Here at house there was 0.04" in the gauge at 7:30 am. NOTE - light additional shower or two brought total for event to 0.05".

The morning sounding from TWC/TUS (above) shows very deep moisture with a sliver of CAPE. At 7:30 am there were still some lingering showers over the metro area (below).

The 12 UTC 500 mb pattern (below) shows a large, Omega type block covering the continental US.

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.