Atmosphere Comparison

[Jim]

The endless chatter of weather.

[azbackpackr]

Glad you can come up with these rain amounts, jhodlof!! How about Eagar or Springerville? When I look on the NWS site it gives me data for St. Johns airport, which has a significantly different climate than over here in Round Valley. We are about 1,000 feet higher, and much closer to the mountains. (They can grow peaches in St. Johns. Alas, we can grow the peach tree, but it takes a small miracle to get a fruit. We stick with our apples. And last year, no one got any apples!) Anyway, we also usually get more rain and snow than they do, and it is always cooler here.

[Jim]

This looks like the best we can get for those smaller towns. http://www.wunderground.com/US/AZ/Saint_Johns.html

[chumley]

The Molly Butler Lodge in Greer has a weather station and webcam on the Weatherbug Network ... but it doesn't show historical rainfall. Its a little more in the mountains than Eagar, but probably closer to what you're getting vs. St. Johns. Check it out here: http://weather.weatherbug.com/AZ/Greer- ... stat=GRRMB

Also the Western Climate Center keeps stations in both Greer and Springerville (click on the number to get the data ... 132 and 133 in this case: http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/summary/climsmaz.html ) but its not published daily for forecasting purposes. They just collect the data for their climate research. It helps you know what is normal ... but not what is happening currently! Oh well.

[azbackpackr]

Hey, thanks. Funny, too, because we have the supervisor's office here in Springerville for the A-S Nat'l. Forest. Ya'd think they'd have a better weather station. Airport here, too.

Now I know what to say when my kids ask me what do I want for Christmas: rain gauge!

[Jim]

This thread has devolved into a rain discussion, but given the weeks events, it makes sense. Before this afternoon Flagstaff had 1.43" of rain for May. It started raining really heavy about 40 minutes ago at my cave. It did that for about 20 to 25 minutes and now its raining at a steady moderate rate. We might top 2" by months end. Will we ever get the traditional pre-monsoon dry season? I hope so, but with this much moisture around and it having saturated the soil, it seems very unlikely we will get those 2% humidity days with below zero dew points. All this rain makes me miss living in Arizona. Oh, wait.

[thebrayer]

Just wondering if anyone knows anything about the ridge to the North of Mt Baldy? I've read that it's at 11,420 which would be 17 feet higher than Baldy. I'm thinking about hiking the Little Colorado route up to that point and I guess with a GPS I can get close to the correct elevation but not right on.

[azbackpackr]

I'll PM you "thebrayer" as this is kind of off topic.

[Jim]

It has started to rain up here again today. I found these records from the NWS. Its been a very wet month (1.63"), but we have a way to go to be in the top 5.

MAY Normal Precipitation: 0.80"
The top 5 wettest Mays:
4.14" 1992
2.40" 1915
2.27" 1901
2.16" 1979
2.02" 1957

[Jim]

I was just looking at the satellite image and could see that it was clear in Phoenix and Tucson. Its been raining very heavily up here for a while. I expect this month will now be the 5th or 4th wettest May on record in Flagstaff. It sure has been an unusually wet May.

[JimmyLyding]

It was spitting on us below the rim as we were finishing up the Drew Trail via See Canyon TH hike, but it looked reeeeaaaallllly dark out there. Very monsoon-like. I can't recall a weather pattern like this sticking around this time of year.

[azbackpackr]

It's very odd, that's for sure. I just started a summer seasonal job near Greer/Green's Peak, where I am supposed to mostly be outside, taking people hiking and such, but had to mostly do crafts indoors--it rained all day there, off and on. But when I got home to Eagar, hubby said it barely rained here at all.

[Jim]

Yesterday's rain at the airport was officially recorded as 0.36 inches. I think I got more at my place, and the radar indicated heavier rain north of I-40 and in the eastern half of town, so many places may have had more like 1/2 or 3/4 of an inch. Regardless, 0.36" puts us over 2 inches for the month. Flagstaff is now sitting at 2.08 inches for May, making this the 5th wettest May on record. It won't take much rain (if we get any) today to make us # 4 or even #3.

Its been a wet May, but this was after a pretty dry Spring and winter. We are 4.6" down for 2009, and 6" down for the water year which started September 1. I'm hoping for a late monsoon, starting sometime after July 4th. Since we've had so much moisture up here this month it isn't likely we will get the super low dew points, but it would be nice to have a few weeks of dry sunny conditions.

[chumley]

.71 at NAU
.82 at Coconino HS
.69 at Doney Park
.59 at Mormon Lake
.33 at Happy Jack

But most impressive to me for May 30 is the 5 inches of snow on the peaks! Still looks nice this morning!

[azbackpackr]

Forecast is slightly drier this week.

[Jim]

A drier forecast is very welcome. I wish it was like 2007, that was an awesome year!

This was on the Flagstaff NWS homepage:

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FLAGSTAFF AZ
1042 AM MST MON JUN 1 2009

...A MAY THAT STARTED AS ONE OF THE WARMEST MAYS ON RECORD ALSO
TURNED INTO ONE OF THE WETTEST...

THE FIRST 15 DAYS OF MAY SET A PACE FOR THE MONTH TO BE ONE OF THE
WARMEST ON RECORD WITH AN AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 56.8 DEGREES. A
LARGE PLUME OF MOISTURE THEN MOVED OVER THE AREA AND THE RECORD
SETTING PACE WAS SLOWED DUE TO THE PASSAGE OF SEVERAL WEAK LOW
PRESSURE SYSTEMS AND INCREASED CLOUD COVER. STARTING ON THE
18TH...THE FLAGSTAFF AIRPORT RECORDED PRECIPITATION ON 12 OF THE 15
REMAINING DAYS OF THE MONTH. AT LEAST A TRACE OF RAIN FELL AT THE
FLAGSTAFF AIRPORT FROM THE 20TH THROUGH 30TH. THIS 11 DAY RUN RANKS
2ND IN MOST CONSECUTIVE DAYS OF PRECIPITATION IN THE MONTH OF
MAY...AND 40TH FOR MOST CONSECUTIVE DAYS OF PRECIPITATION OVERALL.
THE RESULT WAS AN UNUSUALLY WET MAY...WITH 2.08 INCHES OF
PRECIPITATION BEING RECORDED. MAY 2009 ENDED AS THE 5TH WETTEST ON
RECORD...1.28 INCHES ABOVE THE NORMAL 0.80 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION
FLAGSTAFF NORMALLY RECEIVES IN MAY.

THE ABNORMAL PRECIPITATION STILL WAS NOT THE ONLY STORY OF
MONTH...ABNORMALLY HIGH TEMPERATURES ALSO WORKED THEIR WAY INTO THE
MIX. MAY 2009 WAS THE FIRST MAY EVER...TO NOT RECORD A LOW
TEMPERATURE OF 32 DEGREES OR BELOW. THE MONTH ENDED AS THE 2ND
WARMEST MAY ON RECORD WITH A MONTHLY AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 56.0
DEGREES. BREAKING THAT DOWN INTO THE HIGHS AND LOWS...THE AVERAGE
MINIMUM TEMPERATURE WAS 39.6 DEGREES...THE WARMEST AVERAGE MAY
MINIMUM TEMPERATURE EVER RECORDED. THE AVERAGE MAY MAXIMUM
TEMPERATURE CAME IN AS THE 8TH WARMEST MAY MAXIMUM WITH A VALUE OF
72.3 DEGREES.

[azbackpackr]

Well, that's just dandy. I'm just glad it seems to be OVER for a little while! (Both the rain AND May!) I actually went road biking Sunday after work, and mtn. biking yesterday after work. (I am working 7 days a week, so have to find time somewhere in the day for exercise or I will be in danger of turning into a formless blob.)

I have my ditch irrigation assigned hour this evening, (I'm talking about old-fashioned pioneer ditch irrigation--it runs down the side of the street and I open my irrigation gate and let it in when it's my turn) and this time I can actually use the water, as the vegetable plot is starting to dry up! Last week I irrigated, but my yard was already soaked! Can't put too much water on the apple trees at this time of year, though. So I sent it that way.

[joebartels]

My sister has ditch irrigation. Her spring garden put miracle grow to shame. She just tilled it up a few days ago and threw in the summer garden. However I don't think there's anything edible until the Autumn garden.

You'd think in this day and age the NWS could figure out how to use lower case.

[writelots]

Okay, am I allowed to revise my estimates for the beginning of the monsoon? With this cool weather in June, it's doubtful we'll have the kind of heat needed to start this cycle in time for the "early start" I was anticipating...

[dysfunction]

we're now supposed to have a lame monsoon, instead of a good one too.

[cathymocha]

For me, the Monsoon is here with the appearance of that great wall of dust/dirt about 15-20 miles long and a mile, or so, high which comes roaring across the valley from the Superstitions, south to about Gilbert, sweeping the ground of all sediments from the past year. It may or may not produce rain by the time it gets over here in the West Valley, but it often makes havoc and some rain in the East Valley. It usually occurs in the late afternoon or early evening.