The last two days have gotten the summer thunderstorm season off to a serious start here in the Tucson area. Ron Holle reported 3.23" of rain at his house in Oro Valley (Oro Valley is west and northwest of the Catalinas). The photo above, from Ron, shows flood waters in the usually dry wash behind his house - I think the time is about 2 pm on July 4th. Here at the house we had 0.41" (a nice two day event of 0.54"). The airport recorded 0.78"; DM AFB only 0.29"; and Atmo 0.61. The storm here at the house appeared to have developed near the airport and moved north as a short W-E line. The Rillito had run some yesterday and the widespread rains have brought out flying ants and termites, as well as some spade foot toads, here in the neighborhood. The stream flow from the USGS gauge at Dodge and Rillito (a bit over a mile east of the house) shows a flashy spike of over 500 CFS during midafternoon on the 4th.
The ALERT network again had 100% coverage of rainfall during the past 24-hours. There were 41 stations with 0.50" or more; 17 sites with 1.00" or more; 4 stations had 2.00" or more; and 1 site had more than 3.00". The three maps from Pima County (above and below) show the 24-hour rain amounts across the northern 2/3rds of the network.Above is centered on Oro Valley where all the amounts above 2.00" fell. Below is metro Tucson west, where amounts ranged from 0.25" to almost 1.00".
The map at bottom is metro Tucson east, where there were some amounts measured over 1.00", in the Redington Pass area.
The early run of the Atmo, high-resolution, WRF-GFS model indicates much reduced shower activity for the next couple of days, as the larger-scale disturbance that triggered our storms moves north around the large, mid-level anticyclone that covers much of the US.
No comments:
Post a Comment