2012-07-11 MISC: AZ

[David Wolfson]

Re. Kem's report of a possible landspout....

I'd bet against it being a landspout. Yesterday's storms were quite high based. I think the picture was taken looking south of west toward Casa Grande Mountain, near the junction of I-8 and I-10. The illumination just behind the feature is pretty clearly of precipitation and likely comes from the lights of Casa Grande. The feature seems to be vague both near ground level and at the top. Without any other shots, or reports from what is a rather populated area, I think the odds are high you're looking at coincidental lighting of a rain shaft and gust front.

 

[joel ewing]

Hey all! Not sure anybody is still reading this, but where could I view the picture that you guys are discussing? FWIW.....on July 4th of this year, while driving north on I-10 between Marana (basically far northwest Tucson) and Red Rock, I spotted a nice wall cloud with descending funnel cloud. This was on the west side of I-10, maybe 5 miles west. The time was approx. 12:30mst. I was blazing on the freeway with a bunch of my high school buddies from the early 70's, en route to my bro-in-law's home in Phnx, where he's having a wicked time with cancer. We were late, and so I didn't stop to shoot a photo or a vid. I did tell them, "man, if we were in the midwest right now...we'd be hauling butt towards that funnel. OK...fast forward to the next day at my business. One of my employees told me that a friend of his took a photo of a funnel / tornado in between Marana and Red Rock (the same area as the forementioned funnel)....BUT....it was at roughly 5pm on July 4th. He said he could forward me the photo, that nite....and he did....and it's a great shot showing a funnel almost 4/5ths the way down. The bottom of the funnel is blocked by trees, but in my experience....this thing was most likely down all the way. My point is...that makes at least 2 confirmed funnels/tornadoes that same afternoon. Who knows how many more of those things took place, and never got seen outin that remote area west of there....or were spotted by drunk July 4 partiers and never called into the NWS. One thing about that afternoon. Down in Tucson, our dewpoints were abnormally high...between 63 and 70 degrees. PLUS...we had an easterly wave that came in from the Big Bend area of Texas and was directly overhead....and if memory serves me right....LI's of -8. That's stout for our area! SO....we DO get 'em down here in Arizona. Every year, basically. If you are interested in the photo that was sent to me....please let me know. Thanks! Joel

 

[Sean Mullen]

Hey all! Not sure anybody is still reading this, but where could I view the picture that you guys are discussing?

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?29208-2012-07-11-Reports-AZ

Just a couple threads down.....