A Brief Digression: Snow Day Inspiration from Calvin

Extreme Weather Channel Presents... 

(something for the rest of the country)

Not Your Ordinary Snowmen

Dispatches from a Desert Isle: Heatwaves, Haboobs, and Monsoons, oh my!

Extreme Weather Channel Presents...

Wacky Desert Weather!

It's hot, it's cold, it's drier than a bone, wait, is that a river running down my street?!?

... it's Arizona!!!

So, in Arizona, oftentimes it's very very hot in the daytime and very very cold at night. (Well, really cold "for the desert," like 40, but still, sometimes lower...)

Tucson Temperature Records

Record High:	117 deg F on June 26, 1990
Record Low:	6 deg F on January 7, 1913

But the real issue is what comes from the sky—rain, for starters:

Yes, we've had some rain this winter, but most of the really extreme weather happens in the summer here. 

In one year, Tucson gets:

15 days of rain

12" of rain

(that works out to >1" per day)

In the summer, they could get 12" in less than a week!

One time (July, 29, 1958) they got almost 4" in one day!

That's no ordinary rain!! 

It's a

Summers bring monsoons, 

huge storms that create heavy rains and, in Arizona at least, LOTS of lightning.

They make for some really dramatic pictures.

Here comes a storm towards the Grand Canyon (ooooooohhhhh, aaaahhhhhhh...)...

Arizona Lightning Facts:

An average of 673,320 lightning bolts touch down in Arizona each year!

The most active lightning region in North America is right near Tucson. 

The lightning often causes wildfires.

Boo, lightning.

So, what creates monsoons? 

I'm condensing Southwest Climate Change here:

The engine of the monsoon is the sun, which warms the land and Pacific Ocean at different rates, inciting a tug-of-war with the winds. Until the land sufficiently warms, air flow aloft maintains a westerly flow. When the winds do an about-face, the monsoon begins.

The monsoon first begins in northern Mexico in May. The hot summer sun evaporates water from the Gulfs of Mexico and California, creating humidity over the land which produces rain. 

In Arizona, monsoon storms typically arrive in early July after the region has baked in the sun for months. Hot air has risen like a helium balloon, which creates a vacuum lower down, quickly pulling moist, ocean-cooled air into the lower atmosphere. When the heat imbalance between upper and lower air becomes large enough, winds over the Southwest, near an altitude of 30,000 feet (airplane level), take a U-turn westward, pulling moisture from the Gulf of Mexico; at the same time, the near-surface air over the Gulf of California rushes northward into Arizona and New Mexico, carrying with it moisture from that gulf. 

Moisture from two bodies of water + heat + cold = lots of rain!

Yeah. That thing on the left that looks like a curtain is rain. All rain.

That's okay. Lego Batman brought his Lego Umbrella.

So ANYway...

 monsoons also bring: 

dust storms (cough cough) and flash floods

Sometimes the storm releases a downburst of cold air, 
which blows dry, loose desert dust up 
to form a dust wall up to 
100 miles wide!!! 
that can travel at 
60 miles per hour (freeway speed). 
Yeesh.

This kind of dust storm is called a HABOOB.

Run Awayyyyyyyyy!

Here you can watch one in action:

Spooky haboob!

And here's a video of someone driving into another spooky haboob, with extra spooky haboob soundtrack

But of course when the thunderstorm part hits... well, remember that wall of water in the picture above? 

What happens when it hits desert (ie, no soil to soak into)? You guessed it!

If you're hiking, always hike ON THE TRAIL, not in the WASH (which is the natural flood path), and

 

Seems like common sense.

BUT...

sometimes when you're driving, a flash flood finds you too! See?

Instant River.

Here's your public safety announcement about that:

If you're taking the bus, please dress appropriately.

and in case of a 40-day and 40-night monsoon/flash flood... just follow the cats.

They can't spell, but they're pretty good survivors.

Okay. Feel ready to survive an Arizona monsoon season? 

Here's your chance to test yourself out.

Watch this whole storm, start to finish—pretty cool:

And for the hardcore stormwatchers among you...

the entire 2013 Monsoon season in <20 minutes

filmed just for you 

(actually, it's quite beautiful and moving):

That's all for now! 

May the sun shine on you most days, 

and may you always be prepared for whatever other weather you face.

Dispatches from a Desert Isle, Day 4

Day 4

At last I have caught a glimpse of the Dread Captain Saucy Cutlip, and I live to tell the tale! She manifested in human shape, as a handsome Piratrix of some age and wisdom. I stumbled upon her by accident as she slinked away to seek the healing herbs of the desert, or so she said. Are these herbs what help her keep her human form? or regain it? Certainly she appeared skittish of me and seem to have something to hide. Startled, she thanked me again for my help obtaining food the previous day but scuttled away and for the remainder of the day declined further nourishment. Oddly, I found myself rather disappointed that the eggs and quesadillas topped with salsa and avocado would be appreciated only by myself....

The day dawned cool and rainy, so I remained in at doors until I ventured out in the evening to visit the crew, who are fast becoming friends to me. 

They told me tales of monsoons coming over the region in the summertime, with lightning unrivaled in any of the far flung Americas, and I was glad of such a light drizzle for the day and dearly hope I will be back among my loved ones before I face such a fearsome storm.

Tomorrow I hear more dampness is expected, and I will attempt a longer missive, with more information on the area.