Earth Day 2024

 

Light Sprinkles

Added comment - I forgot to make note of the wind gusts yesterday and will add here:

Numerous sites reported gusts of 45 to 50 mph yesterday. I found 5 sites with gusts over 50 mph in southeastern Arizona. Tucson reported gusts to 53 mph as did Empire ranch; Ft. Huachuca had 52 mph; Pioneer Airfield reported 60 mph, and Guthrie reported 67 mph. I estimate that we had gusts here at house in the 50 to 55 mph range. It was a cold, nasty wind.

Golden skies over the Catalinas at 6:00 am this Saturday morning.

There were light showers and sprinkles scattered around the metro area after midnight last night. The plots (above and below - from ALERT and MesoWest) show that showers mostly avoided the metro area and amounts were all 0.04" or less. It does not appear to have rained any here at the house.

Windy Tomorrow

Sunrise this morning at about 6:10 am MST.

Forecast of 500 mb level from 06 UTCGFS (above) valid at 00 UTC on 6 April. Below is forecast for 250 mb from the same model run - note the very strong upper-level jet over southeastern Arizona with maximum speeds over 150 kt.

Forecast above (from 12 UTC WRF-RR run at Atmo) is for total precipitation through 2:00 am on Saturday the sixth - just a bit of light precipitation over parts of Pima County. Forecast below is for wind speeds from the same model run valid at 2:00 pm tomorrow afternoon, showing quite strong winds at the airport.

Morning statement and forecast for the airport from the NWS forecast Office (above and below) emphasizing the strong wind conditions tomorrow. Note that it has been wet lately, making blowing dust a long-shot for the airport.

Brief Summary - March

 

View of the Rincons before sunrise on March 14, 2024.

Total rainfall here at the house during March was 1.55 inches. This was the wettest March since I started my precipitation observations, besting the previous high of 1.27 inches in 2020.

There was measurable rainfall on 6 days, with the highest amount being 0.65 inches on March 31st. I did not hear thunder during the month, but there were a couple of days that the CG flashes indicate I probably missed hearing it.

More Re Rain Event

View toward Redington Pass at 5:15 am MST this early morning.

ALERT network data for 24-hours ending at 7:oo am this morning (above and below) again show almost 100 percent coverage, but with amounts smaller than those yesterday. Here at house we had an additional 0.25" for a total event amount of 0.35".

Plumes shown here are from the GEFS 06 UTC runs. QPF at airport (above) forecasts indicate chances for light showers on the 6th and the 9th. Temperatures  (below) rise dramatically through the 4rth, and then cool down for rest of week. Plumes for winds (second below) indicate a very windy day on Friday. Basically an unsettled week, but with no really significant storms.

Widespread Precipitation Event

Morning showers on the Catalinas at 7:30 am April 1st - no fooling.

Data from the ALERT network for 24 hours ending at 7:30 am (above and below) shows 100 coverage of amounts greater than 0.04". Here at house we had 0.75" in the gauge this morning - most of this fell before midnight, with about a tenth of an inch after midnight. Atmo reported 0.52", DM had 0.42":, and the airport reported 0.29". Heaviest amounts in the ALERT network were on the north side of the Catalinas - even the high elevation sites started out as rain.

The TWC/TUS sounding this morning (above) shows moist conditions up to 400 mb, a sliver of CAPE, and very strong southwest winds aloft, reaching 180 kts. The trough is still out to our west, keeping some chance for additional showers as it moves across Arizona today.

Plumes for the GEFS 06 UTC runs shown here - QPF above, temperature below, and winds second below. The QPF plumes show rain at the airport continuing well into the night tonight. Temperature recovers, before another cool spell at end of the week. The winds are forecast to be very strong on Friday the 5th.

Forecast from the 12 UTC WRF-RR model (below) shows precipitation forecast through noon tomorrow. Amounts exceed a tenth of an inch over most of eastern Pima County. This is proving to be quite a nice event to end March and begin April.