Monday, July 07, 2014

Summary July 6th - Mostly A Down Day


First of note yesterday morning (the 6th) was that the Rillito Wash was flowing briefly - above is from the USGS stream flow gauge at Rillito and Dodge, showing a brief spike of more than 500 cfs. This is the first flow in the wash in a very long time.

Below, is yesterday's 12 UTC WRF-NAM forecast for rainfall through 6 am MST this morning. The great big minimum area stretches from Tucson to Phoenix metro. The forecast verified fairly well, especially for areas northeast and east of Tucson. 



There was no rainfall noted over most of the metro area - zero at TUS, DM, Atmo, and also here at house. The airport did observe a brief thunderstorm from a cell that was nearly stationary to the southeast of TUS. Across the ALERT network only 12 sites had rainfall (bit over 10% coverage) and most of these were in the southern sector (see above) of the network. However, heaviest amount was 0.67" at Empire Peak, where the NWS Doppler radar is located. The plot of detected CG flashes for period ending at midnight last night (below) depicts the large area of suppression between here and Phoenix metro - so it goes, and that modified cool, surface layer prevailed for the second time in last three days.



Rainfall amounts observed at MesoWest stations during the 24-hours ending at 6 am MST this morning are shown above. The 0.71" amount shown is from the USGS stream flow gauge at Barrel Canyon, which is just south-southwest of the NWS radar site but at much lower elevation. I have not noticed a rain gauge there and will have to take a look next time we drive down Highway 83. The largest amounts were apparently observed on Mt. Graham yesterday.

Thunderstorms were very active across Mexico yesterday as indicated by the CG plot below for the afternoon yesterday through midnight.


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