New Year's Day At Santa Rita Abbey

We have been away to Santa Rita Abbey (5 mile north-northwest of Sonoita) last evening, returning to Tucson this afternoon between 02:30 and 03:30 pm MST this afternoon. Rainfall today at house was light - found only a new 0.16" in the rain gauge. However, more showers have come by near dark and there is more out there now.

There were light showers out in Sonoita area at sunrise, along with 35 to 50 mph wind gusts. Suffered damage to my my large umbrella when winds turned it inside-out. By about 09:00 am MST showers had abated - photo above above is looking east and photo below looking west toward where Mt. Wrightson is obscured.

Rain set in again from around 11:00 am to 01:30 pm this afternoon with more strong winds and moderate showers occurring frequently. Don't know how much rain fell out there - but, while they were very close, I never saw any snowflakes. Photo above is during a period of moderate rainfall. Photo below is from the highway 83 scenic overview east of the proposed Rosemont mine site at north end of Santa Ritas. Snow level was very close to that predicted by WRF-GFS at Atmo during last several runs. Photo at bottom is from same site looking back toward southwest to the main massif of the Santa Rita Sky Island.

An exciting weather start to 2017.