A strong middle and upper-level trough was crossing the Southwest when we flew to Chicago on April 1st. This system brought wind and dust to the Tucson area, but rainfall was mostly just sprinkles. We flew on Southwest and had an indirect route that took us to San Diego and then to Denver and finally to Chicago Midway airport. A long day of travel! The chart above (from the Univ. of Wyoming upper-air site) is the 300 mb analysis for the morning we were flying. Note the 130 to 150 kt jet from Tucson across the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The flight encountered some of the worst turbulence I've experienced in my years of travel as it crossed central Colorado, and the light to moderate turbulence on approach to, and departure from, DIA seemed minor.------------------------------------------------------------------------
The trough caught up with us in Chicago bringing rain and storms late Friday and Saturday morning and again on Easter evening. Rainfall on Easter evening, associated with strong low-level warm advection, was fairly substantial with amounts around a half to more than an inch. Windy? - of course!
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Return flight on Monday afternoon 5 April was back into the base of another strong middle and upper-level trough, as we had a connection in Las Vegas. the flight was choppy but nothing like that of the preceding Thursday. Winds had been very strong across the Southwest during the afternoon and the deep boundary layer was laden with dust. I noted that some surface stations in northern Arizona had reported wind gusts of 50 to more than 60 mph.
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No rain in the gauge on return home. Coldest morning low temperature while we were away was 24F, apparently on Friday April 2nd.
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