Official Arizona Weather Thread

[82CardsGrad]

Looks like its moving in from the west. Can't remember the last time I have seen the summer monsoon storms rotate in from the NW. Hopefully we get some good rain though

HUge storms rolling in from the west - almost in a straight line. It's a classic training pattern and if you're in the path of the train, you're in for a good dose of the wet stuff!

 

[Jersey Girl]

HUge storms rolling in from the west - almost in a straight line. It's a classic training pattern and if you're in the path of the train, you're in for a good dose of the wet stuff!

I looked at the radar and, yeah, that's what it looks like. Should be interesting!

 

[O]

We don't need no stinkin rain!

It's not to be abused but sometimes a good stickman is just the thing.




Seriously though, here in the central we've had a couple of good rain bursts so far.
No lightning or thunder just nice cool rain.
Very welcome!

 

[82CardsGrad]

Big drop in temps... Lots of wind... Dust everywhere... Some thunder and some decent flashes of lightening... and, only a few sparse drops of agua...

What a tease!!! O - any plans to head out of town anytime soon??

 

[BirdMan21]

Just woken up to thunder and rain....lots of storms moving in from the west. Really weird upper air pattern the past 24 hours. Looks like the south half of the valley should be getting hit here for a while this morning.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[HeavyB3]

Just woken up to thunder and rain....lots of storms moving in from the west. Really weird upper air pattern the past 24 hours. Looks like the south half of the valley should be getting hit here for a while this morning.

You must be registered for see images attach

Wake up buckeye! Lots of thunder and lightning and rain.

 

[BirdMan21]

Radar really filling in for the south half of the valley....looks like we could be getting some rain and thunder for a while. Not helping my plan to catch up on sleep after traveling for a golf tournament the past 5 days.

 

[Brianellsworth]

I love this lightning and thunder it is coming from every direction and quite frequently

 

[Hollywood]

Thunder and lightning (and freaked out dogs) woke me up about a half hour ago. And it just started pouring rain here in east Mesa.

 

[Hollywood]

Oh crap! Huge round of thunder just rattled the windows and set off car alarms!

 

[Brianellsworth]

I am driving to work right now and the rain on the sixty between Gilbert and the 101 was insane but now I'm in Tempe and it's died down to a heavy sprinkle

 

[BirdMan21]

http://www.wunderground.com/wunderm...=0&riv=0&mm=0&hur=0&fire=0&tor=0&ndfd=0&pix=0

Great link for a valley radar that updates every 5 min. Looks like these storms will be going through rushour....still a lot out to the west to move through.

 

[Hollywood]

thanks, i was just going to ask for one.

 

[Dback Jon]

pouring rain here in ocotillo

 

[MigratingOsprey]

good amount of rain the past 2 nights in goodyear ...... wouldn't mind one of those neat 6 o'clock storms that just drop the temps 30 degrees real fast

 

[Ryanwb]

East Mesa has been like a desert

 

[82CardsGrad]

Some very promising action moving in from the east!!

http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/?lat=35.10193&lon=-111.40137&zoom=5

 

[BirdMan21]

Some very promising action moving in from the east!!

http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/?lat=35.10193&lon=-111.40137&zoom=5

Yup, and its moving into a great environment to keep going. There have been some outflow boundaries from the storms to our north moving through the valley the past 30 min. Fingers crossed these keep building.

 

[O]

I hope it makes it.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Yup, and its moving into a great environment to keep going. There have been some outflow boundaries from the storms to our north moving through the valley the past 30 min. Fingers crossed these keep building.

Dude, I am not the weather expert that you seem to be - but when I look at the map, I don't see any storms to the north?? What am I missing??

 

[BirdMan21]

I hope it makes it.

If we could a vBookie on individual nights for storms....you would have to give me some really good odds to say these won't make it. Lots of instability, good steering flow for the storms, and they seem to be building off of each others outflows. I would say its better than 50/50 these make it all the way through the valley late tonight early tomorrow.

 

[O]

If we could a vBookie on individual nights for storms....you would have to give me some really good odds to say these won't make it. Lots of instability, good steering flow for the storms, and they seem to be building off of each others outflows. I would say its better than 50/50 these make it all the way through the valley late tonight early tomorrow.

You can make a vBookie on anything you want.
I'm not a contributor right now so I can't make one.
You could do one, they're really easy to set up.

 

[BirdMan21]

Dude, I am not the weather expert that you seem to be - but when I look at the map, I don't see any storms to the north?? What am I missing??

There were storms up north between New River and Prescott about 2 hours ago that have since dissipated. When they died, they sent out outflow boundaries (just think all the really cool air from the top of the storm rushing down from the top and then spreading out in all directions, which in stronger storms are the big microbursts that cause all the damage.) which are sometimes even visible by radar. If you look at the image that O posted you can actually see the leading edge of this outflow (the darker blue edge out in front of the storms coming from the east). When outflow boundaries collide they cause the air to rise rapidly which in turn helps fuel and create thunderstorms. Think of two waves moving through a pool and when they hit they force each other straight up in the air.

Well the outflows from the storms up north just moved through the valley about 15 min ago so if these storms get close enough that will help enhance storm development and strength.

All those huge monsoon storm nights we usually get occur when outflow boundaries from the storms to the north and the boundaries from the east collide over the metro area allow the storms to continue to build long after the hottest part of the day has passed.

 

[BirdMan21]

You can make a vBookie on anything you want.
I'm not a contributor right now so I can't make one.
You could do one, they're really easy to set up.

Ya, I just don't think I wanna start doing it every night for storms. Although if we had another area for it, I could put together the forecast for the day and all the data to come up with the odds. I am currently working on getting my masters in meteorology (gonna take about 10 years at this pace, but its always been my second love behind the Cardinals), and could be interesting to see how I would do forecasting wise off the raw data.

 

[82CardsGrad]

There were storms up north between New River and Prescott about 2 hours ago that have since dissipated. When they died, they sent out outflow boundaries (just think all the really cool air from the top of the storm rushing down from the top and then spreading out in all directions, which in stronger storms are the big microbursts that cause all the damage.) which are sometimes even visible by radar. If you look at the image that O posted you can actually see the leading edge of this outflow (the darker blue edge out in front of the storms coming from the east). When outflow boundaries collide they cause the air to rise rapidly which in turn helps fuel and create thunderstorms. Think of two waves moving through a pool and when they hit they force each other straight up in the air.

Well the outflows from the storms up north just moved through the valley about 15 min ago so if these storms get close enough that will help enhance storm development and strength.

All those huge monsoon storm nights we usually get occur when outflow boundaries from the storms to the north and the boundaries from the east collide over the metro area allow the storms to continue to build long after the hottest part of the day has passed.

Ah Hah! Got it!

Thanks Bill Belis!