The severe storms of Tuesday August 8th

I have been very busy the last week or so and have not gotten much posted.

Some of the most severe storms to strike the Tucson metro area occurred during the late afternoon of Tuesday August 8th. The synoptic setting was not one that seemed supportive of such intense storms. These storms displayed a distinct linear organization for about two hours as they moved across the southern half of the city. Some details and a photo are at this newspaper url:

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/141496

Later this summer or Fall I will analyze the most severe events of the summer and contrast them with a newspaper description of what meteorological conditions bring Tucson the most severe storms during the summer.

Finally, the almost total lack of sounding data from much of Mexico since early July continues to frustrate attempts to analyze the larger-scale conditions over southwestern North America - the negative impacts on the models have been especially significant.