Localized Gusty Winds Over Southeast Arizona

The winds are quite strong along the Rillito Wash this morning, with gusts of 30 to 35 mph, or a bit stronger. The current pattern is usually associated with very strong winds at Mt. Hopikins, and this morning the RAWS station there is recording strong gusts, with an early morning max of 82 mph. Here at the house there was a brief period of strong winds before dusk yesterday that were in the 40 to 45 mph range. Below is surface plot from MesoWest at 8:00 am MST - plot shows only local winds with gusts in red. Sheltered wind shadow west of Catalinas extends from Catalina and Oro Valley westward out to the north of the Tucson Mountains. Mt. Hopkins had calmed some to 59 mph.

The NWS link to MesoWest plots no longer works and gives you an error message - so the above plot came directly from:

http://mesowest.utah.edu/cgi-bin/droman/mesomap.cgi?state=AZ&rawsflag=3