Spotty Storms Yesterday

Heavy cloud cover over the metro area this morning at 7:10 am MST (above). Plot of detected CG flashes (below, from Atmo and Vaisala) for 24 hours ending at 0733 UTC this early morning shows spotty storm activity around eastern Pima County - definitely more than I expected when I wrote yesterday's post.

Plots from the ALERT network (above and below) are for 24 hours ending at 7:00 am this morning. Rain reports were scattered around the network. Amounts were mostly light, but there were two reports over half an inch.

Here at the house we had gusty winds to around 30 to 35 mph, with a light evening sprinkle giving us a Trace of rain. Atmo reported gusts to 32 mph and 0.16"; the airport had thunder and gusts to 37 mph, but no rain; and DM reported light showers with 0.01".

The morning sounding (above) is again not very impressive, with light and variable winds aloft and just a bit of mid-level CAPE.

However, the forecast from the 12 UTC WRF-RR (above) shows light precipitation over much of eastern Pima County through 6:00 am tomorrow. The NWS morning forecast (below) has 30 to 40 percent POPs today and tonight for the airport. There is an Excessive Heat Warning in effect Sunday well into next week, with only low POPs for rain at the airport. Not a great way to end August.