Pacific Moisture Inches Northward

First - brief January summary: TUS had 12 days during January with lows of 32F or colder. Here in the Rillito Bottoms we had 20 such days, with 4 mornings down in the teens. Rainfall at TUS was 0.81" and here at house we had 0.76". Not an exciting month, except for the cold snap.

Very chopped up setting this afternoon in upper-troposphere, with several weak short waves moving different directions along and off the U.S. and Mexico west coasts - above water vapor image is from 3 pm MST. The MIMIC blended PW (below from 2 pm MST) shows that higher values of PW have moved northward, with values of over an inch nearly reaching San Diego.

As a weak middle-level short wave affects Arizona during the day tomorrow, the models forecast a bit of precipitation. The 5 am forecasts from the WRF-GFS indicate widespread radar echo coverage at noon tomorrow (below - Sunday 3 February). These are mostly mid-level echoes with light showers and virga.

The forecast for total precipitation through 5 pm tomorrow (below) shows widespread coverage of very light amounts, with the mountains doing slightly better.

And least I forget, it's a special day today!