March Winding Down

Bit of color over the Rincons at 6:05 am MST this morning.

While March has not been very stormy so far, it certainly has been hot. Graphic (above) from the NWS shows the many records that have been set across southeast Arizona.

Current forecasts indicate a somewhat unsettled end of the month. The forecast above shows precipitation totals through the end of the month from the 06 UTC run of the GFS model. Below is the GFS 500 mb forecast valid at 18 UTC on 30 March, showing a weak shortwave over Arizona.

 The plumes from the 06 UTC GEFS runs are shown here through the 30th. QPF plumes for the airport (above) indicate activity for the 29th into the 31st. While the temperature forecasts (below) indicate considerable cooling for the last several days of the month.

The plumes indicate strong winds on the 28th (above), while POPs at the airport peak around 60 percent (below). So, it's looking like an interesting end of the month wrt weather here in our part of Arizona, as well as for much of the state.

Tri-State Tornado

See the following papers in Electronic Journal of Severe Storm Meteorology (EJSSM Vol 8 2013):

St. Patrick's Day

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day 2026!

The Chicago River has been dyed green (above). A parade through the streets of Dublin, Ireland (below) - don't know what's with the big rabbit? The Sydney, Australia Opera House with green lighting (bottom).

Storm Reports Yesterday

 

It was a very active severe storm day yesterday. Reports, above from the Storm Prediction Center, approached 700.

It's Pi Day

 Today - March 14 (3-14) is pi day. The numerical value of pi is: 3.14159265....and on and on.

As for me, make mine pecan!

Update

 

View of the Rincons around 6:30 am MST this morning.

There was no more rain yesterday after the morning post, so total for the event here was 0.27". This was the most rain since the 0.34" on January 23rd and 24th.

Lingering Showers

Heavy clouds over Tucson and the Catalinas at 8:00 am MST this morning. Image at bottom shows a snippet of a rainbow at 4:00 pm yesterday afternoon.

Considerable CG flashes with the storms yesterday late - plot of flashes above for 24-hurs ending at 0833 UTC early this morning (from Atmo). There were several crashes of thunder here around 4:00 pm.

Rain amounts of 0.04" or more occured at almost all of the ALERT sites during the 24-hours ending at 9:30 am this morning (above and below), with greatest amounts out west of here along the Interstate. We had 0.27" in the gauge this morning.

Radar base-scan from 9:30 am (above) indicates a few lingering showers over eastern Pima County. These are moving to the southwest, as the upper low is centered south of Tucson. Current forecast from the NWS (below) for the airport indicates a rapid warm-up after today's unsettled weather.