A Direct Hit

Heavy storm in our part of town around 6:00 pm MST yesterday. Plot of detected CG flashes (below - from Atmo and Vaisala) for 24 hours ending at 0103 am this early morning shows the storms were focused on north part of metro area and the Catalina foothills.

Rain reports were scattered around the ALERT network (above and below for 24 hours ending at 7:00 am this morning. Heaviest amounts were along the Rillito and out to Picture Rocks area west of Tucson Mountains. Here at the house we had a heavy downpour around 6:00 pm that left another 1.36 " in the gauge (total for day 1.39"). This was the heaviest event here in over two years. 

In previous blog post I said that it looked like a down day - but it ended up as a down-pour day. My batting average has not been very good this summer.

The 500 mb chart remains a real mess (above), with no well-defined anticyclone center. In the upper troposphere, however, the anticyclone is very distinct and centered over northern Mexico (250 mb chart below).

The morning sounding for TWC/TUS (below) remains quite moist below 500 mb and unstable. Winds below 400 mb continue light and variable. Once again, I would expect a mostly down day - but after yesterday, I'll just watch to see how things actually go.