Monday, June 23, 2008

The Haboob of Saturday Evening June 21st 2008

This was probably the first significant event, for southeast Arizona, of the 2008 summer thunderstorm season. Widespread convection occurred over parts of southeast Arizona and particularly over southwest New Mexico and northern Mexico. See Figure 1.

High cloud bases and a very hot boundary layer led to an organized, mesoscale outflow that affected much of southeastern Arizona. Passage here in Tucson occurred about 4:30 pm local time. The outflow was well-depicted as a fine line on the KEMX reflectivity display see Figure 2.

Note that Douglas, Arizona, reported a severe convective gust of 51 kt at 3:32 pm local time after the haboob had moved passed. This severe storm event did not make it into SPC's list of wind events for the 21st.

We were returning to Tucson from Chicago and landed about 10:00 pm local time. The approach was very bumpy and winds were still gusty from the east to southeast. The air was heavily laden with dust, giving the 3/4 moon a very strange and dirty yellow-brown appearance.

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