Susan Strom
EF5
Looks like Round Two for the Arizona Deserts tonight. Last night’s storms packed high winds, heavy precip (65 dbz at one point in the Central Deserts), a massive haboob over PHX and over 18,000 registered lightning strikes within southern Arizona (source of lightning stat: Royal Norman, chief met over at 3TV Phoenix). After some hot and sticky nighttime chasing, I hope a few of those made it into my camera. A chase report will have to come later, I had a long night.
Here we go again. Southern AZ is under a slight risk and there’s another mesoscale discussion out at http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/md/md1095.html
Interestingly, this setup, the H over the Four Corners and the L over the Baja, is characteristic of monsoon. However, Arizona is technically not in monsoon. The monsoon typically starts in early July. In addition, to declare monsoon, a 55 degree dewpoint (PHX) must be reached for three consecutive days. Of course…in a tender week of early June that has not happened yet and wouldn’t be expected.
In any event, moisture is coming up again from Old Mexico and we’re in for some more fun in the deserts. I would expect to see: High winds, downbursts, haboob, iso to scattered torrential rain pockets, cloud-to-ground lightning, and the poss of arroyos being filled by flash floodwaters.
Happy hunting, don’t get too sandblasted
Here we go again. Southern AZ is under a slight risk and there’s another mesoscale discussion out at http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/md/md1095.html
Interestingly, this setup, the H over the Four Corners and the L over the Baja, is characteristic of monsoon. However, Arizona is technically not in monsoon. The monsoon typically starts in early July. In addition, to declare monsoon, a 55 degree dewpoint (PHX) must be reached for three consecutive days. Of course…in a tender week of early June that has not happened yet and wouldn’t be expected.
In any event, moisture is coming up again from Old Mexico and we’re in for some more fun in the deserts. I would expect to see: High winds, downbursts, haboob, iso to scattered torrential rain pockets, cloud-to-ground lightning, and the poss of arroyos being filled by flash floodwaters.
Happy hunting, don’t get too sandblasted
