We were away Friday afternoon and yesterday. Friday continued suppressed over eastern Pima County, except for a couple of mountain ALERT stations. However, yesterday's convoluted pattern brought a considerable increase in storm activity, as was well forecasted by the U of A version of the WRF model. We were about 5 miles northwest of Sonoita and thunder rumbled there off and on all afteroon, starting just after 12 noon. The heaviest storms stayed to the east, as per above photo taken looking to the east-southeast about 2 pm. Mountains to the far right are the Huachucas and those to the left are the southern tail of the Whetstones.
We returned to Tucson late afternoon and were here to watch the development of storms over the metro area right at dusk (check the Tucson sounding at 00Z but remember that it was not actually as dry as indicated by the flawed data). Thunder and a brief heavy shower left 0.14" in the backyard rain gauge - much needed. Rainfall was measured at 47 of the 93 ALERT gauges in eastern PIMA County giving a coverage of about 50% - the most since a week ago today. Amounts were light with only 18 sites measuring 0.10" of an inch or more. Keystone Peak down to the south of metro area had greatest amount at 0.59." Tucson International airport had a gust from the west of 48 mph to go with its 0.06." Quite an interesting evening with the after-dark storms well indicated by the WRF. The day two WRF indicated increasing low-level moisture as recycling and a slow feed from the GoC continues, with increased storm activity today in the south-central and west parts of southern Arizona. Will be interesting to see what new data and new runs have in store for us.
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