Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Heavy Rain Last Night



Morning view of Catalinas (above) and south from Kitt Peak (bottom), after a night with widespread, heavy rains and thunderstorms. Plot of CG flashes through 1423 UTC (below) shows that much of southern and western Arizona had significant storm activity. Note also the dense cluster of flashes at the north end of GoC - fairly unusual occurrence.

The full day movie at Atmo webpage is worth looking at - nearly continuous lighting around midnight and then complex cloud structures rest of loop.


ALERT network rainfall (above and below) shows numerous sites with over an inch. One site on east side indicates over 4 inches - Rillito flow peaked at about 20,000 cfs during early morning hours. Here at house we had 1.23 inches during the two hours centered on midnight. Only the two most southern sites had less than 0.04 inches.


The 500 mb analysis (above) shows the nearly stationary, west-to east trough continuing from southern California, eastward through Arizona and into New Mexico. This feature is forecast to remain over the state through tomorrow.

The morning TUS/TWC sounding (below) was very moist, with a sliver of CAPE, and light variable winds. Sun is now peeking out and sounding has likely dried considerably. Expect an essentially down day today, after the widespread rains last night.



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