HikeArizona.COM

The endless chatter of weather.

It snowed here for about half the day, after several days of 25 mph wind with 50 mph gusts. Both are common at this time of year here, especially the wind. Later this afternoon the snow started to stick in Eagar, but not in Springerville. Up on the mtn., in Greer, Alpine, etc. it probably stuck to the ground a lot more.

SuperstitionGuy wrote:As the ole saying goes in NM. That ain't dust, it's enchantment....

I have to save that one.

Walked to a packed town hall meeting last night on Flash flood mitigation due to the Waldo Fire burn scar and the sediments washing down the north side of the 24. Actually very interesting and enlightening. It was just starting to snow. Still snowing when I got up this am. My wife texted me she beat the plows out and had to use 4 wheel drive all the way to work. I'm pretty sure I've permantly lost the unobstructed use of my truck on a daily basis.

On a more serious note, the meteorologist there last night said because the fire burned so hot the surface is like asphalt and water runs until it loosens the sediments. They expect flash flooding with as little as 1/2 inch of rain in an hour over the burn scar in some watersheds. They will have earth movers and dump trucks stationed along the 24 during monsoon season to clear up the debri as it over runs the highway. We're fortunately not in a flood 100 or 500 year maps, but I guess I'll be getting the emergency preparedness of the house and family up to par in case we are effected by Loss of utilities or the road being closed for an extended period of time. There seems to be great organization and preplanning in the community including reverse 911 and instant weather warnings texted to your phone for your area if you register. Also disaster plans from each household on file with the fire dept. as to whether you plan to weather out floods or fire in your home or evacuate so they know who to come find. I'm glad I attended, but had no idea how big an issue this was for the area we chose to call home.

@MtnBart01
I hope your house stays where it is this spring...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whYmN5Fo ... e=youtu.be

A video explaining the wonderful wind, from my favorite place to live! Includes an image of dust plumes headed to the San Juans, which the 14ers crowd hates, and a time lapse video of the Schultz Smoke.

A backdoor cold front has brought a pretty intense thunderstorm to Alamogordo. It has been raining heavily for about 45 minutes, at my house. I consider this very unusual. My guess is at least 1/4 of an inch, perhaps as much as 1/2 an inch, has fallen here in my yard. Hopefully, a similar amount has come down on the A trail and the very dry front range area. A big cell has developed over Hatch, NM, which has to be good, as I assume the chiles have been planted and the drought monitor reports the lowest lake levels in 100 years, on the 2 reservoirs north of Las Cruces/ Hatch. They are at <10% of capacity, when they probably should be near capacity at this time of year during a normal run off season.

And it's probably heading this way? Maybe I ought to opt for tent instead of tarp?

We got hammered this morning in the gulf with t-storms ahead of the front with 60 knot winds and are getting hit again with 50 knot winds offshore (higher in Grand Isle and Fourchon. My wife woke up to 5 inches of snow yesterday at our house.

Pretty blustery with dark clouds here right now. Had to re-anchor my mesquite tree so it won't blow over.

I was just realizing that this has been a mostly pleasant spring in the valley. I wonder if that means June will hover in the 130s.

chumley wrote:I was just realizing that this has been a mostly pleasant spring in the valley. I wonder if that means June will hover in the 130s.

I think you might be right, other than a lot of wind blowing crap in the air the temps have not been too bad this spring. Wondering if we might have an early monsoon. When I was up in Sedona this past weekend it felt like it was trying. Around late afternoon the clouds really built up and it got quite windy, even had about 10 drops of rain fall on me.

Curious that this spring period of March-April-May has followed an unscientifically noticed pattern of what ever emerges early will not last, and the early indications are often false indications. Actually, the same can be said of the winter period of December-January and February. In both phases, what started early ended and the opposite was true. It was very hot, into the mid 90s when I was in Tucson in March, and after that ended it seems to have been cool, below normal a lot around here. In December it was wet, especially in the Sierra, and there after it was dry, well below normal to record dry in some places (except for central AZ which did OK).

The continued relatively cool conditions probably don't do much to tell us what June and the summer months will be like, but it may suddenly get hot. It think it is better to get hotter, sooner, as that helps the monsoon come in, as hotter conditions on the plains mean the surface high developed and that translates to a flow around it, and in turn a moisture plume begins to develop. I think the current temps are great. The question for me is, when will rain arrive, and how good will the season be?

http://hikearizona.com/photoset.php?ID=25304&STs=34

Some great clouds over the Sacramento Plateau this evening. I went nuts posting some pics I took.

Some moisture is supposed to slip into eastern New Mexico over night and cause thunderstorms tomorrow east of the continental divide. Should push east as a high builds back in, but I think it is sort of a taste of monsoon season, which I forecast to begin in the next few weeks. Over here, at least. Not that NWS date start, but high humidity and rains.

An impressive little cell is headed toward Alamo from White Sands this evening. It started with some dark clouds, some mammatus projections, and a haboob, and we've got some very nice blowing dust and an orange sky right now. Might get some rain out of it.

Oh no, a haboob! Not a dust storm or sand storm, but a TV weatherhairdo's latest favorite weather phenomenon: a haboob! (I think they just like to get away with saying that on TV.)

@azbackpackr
It's like an old Rusty Warren song..."Bounce Your Haboobies."

RWStorm wrote:@azbackpackr
It's like an old Rusty Warren song..."Bounce Your Haboobies."

Twas a warm one today. Rather than look it up myself, I'll ask here: does the calendar say it's summer yet?

@Patrick L
three more weeks