HikeArizona.COM

The endless chatter of weather.

Fall dry season, decent to good winter of 2015, and a complete failure of the 2015 monsoon! El Nino, make it happen

From someone that works in a shop cooled only by swamp cooler, I'm also looking forward to some dryer air But.... I do love this rain ;)

August blizzard!

@joe bartels
You're alive!

And for the record, I have never had air conditioning anyplace I have lived. Swamp cooler all the way baby. And I still love the sweaty, steamy monsoon. So to the rest of you that can't handle it I say: too bad, so sad.

rwstorm wrote:And for the record, I have never had air conditioning anyplace I have lived. Swamp cooler all the way baby. And I still love the sweaty, steamy monsoon. So to the rest of you that can't handle it I say: too bad, so sad.

I have to concur. I lived in Tucson for 13 years in three different mobile homes, all of which had swamp coolers. I liked them then, and I think I would still like them. I liked the fact you not only can leave windows open, but you are supposed to. Therefore you are not all shut in. The only time I prefer to be shut in is when it's very cold, but I am choosing to not live in very cold places any more!

Plus, I like a bit of humidity now and then. I like those August days, getting hotter and hotter, and then everything breaks loose with a giant storm, cooling things off and making everything smell wonderful.

I was in Needles last week and happened to be there when they had the biggest storm they'd had in years. What fun that was! Knocked down power poles and trees, the whole thing! The river got muddy, there were huge puddles everywhere, and a rainbow, too!

Just got back from another trek in the Gila last night...this time Mogollon Creek between Bud's Hole and Tepee Canyon...

If you can deal with the incredibly exposed areas along the majority of the upper ridges (thank you very much Silver fire) of the mountains, you will find plenty, and I mean plenty of water. This is the second trip to the Gila in two weeks...lots of storms, flash flooding, and incredibly well-flowing waters *and quite dangerous in places* abound. It's actually pretty amazing to see so much water there! Now if only that fire never happened...

Aaaahhhh. Morning rain.

chumley wrote:Aaaahhhh. Morning rain.

morning flooding. I was plowing thru the water in my complex. Got out to city streets and much worse. Turned around and am waiting it out so I can get to work. Looks like nearly an inch of rain since a little after 6AM. Lightning and thunder now.

More!

@tibber
1.34" 101 and 51 so far. Hardest I've seen it rain in quite awhile

@tibber
What? No love for mytontojr? Isn't a little flooding what it thrives on!?

The Eagle wrote:1.34" 101 and 51 so far. Hardest I've seen it rain in quite awhile

I've had some good totals in an hour's time in the last couple weeks. But it was a hard rain for almost an hour it seemed. I'm around Cave Creek and Union Hills so we're not too far apart. Wanted to turn off my irrigation system but the water was too high in the backyard and would have required wading shoes; didn't have time before work. I think my gauge was reading over an inch when I left but I can't quite see that far from my kitchen.

chumley wrote:What? No love for mytontojr? Isn't a little flooding what it thrives on!?

needs to ease into it I think ;) . that water was deep and Jr was worried about getting its engine wet. Even at 8 1/2" clearance the water was splashing up to driver level as I drove through.

@tibber
1.46 at the CostCo just up the road from you

The mountains north of Cave Creek and Carefree got a nice 1.5-3.0" -- methinks Camp Creek Falls will be running nicely today.

The Bradshaws got nailed again, with Towers at 4.02" and Crown King at 3.11". I think that Towers has now had more than 10" in the past two weeks.

Steady rain most of the morning at my home in Payson and looks that it may at times be heavy throughout the rest of the day after reviewing weather information.

I'm no engineer, but somebody dropped the ball.

Skunk Creek where it crosses under I-17 flashed and is running at nearly 7000cfs and a gauge height of 5-feet (north of Jomax). That's where it's in a concrete flood channel like it's supposed to be.

A mile north of there, the crossing under Dixileta couldn't handle the flow and is instead running down I-17 -- because that was well-planned :roll: . The aqueducts for the wash to drain over the CAP canal are innundated and the canal is filling with delicious Wonka chocolate river mud. What a mess!

@chumley
NB Traffic getting through on HOV lane only right now.

edit.... Now Closed completely

Rock Slides reported on I17 in north of Black Canyon City also

New River at Table Mesa Rd flashed to almost 8000cfs.

Here's the kicker ... Agua Fria on the west side of I-17 just north of Table Mesa is at 30,000cfs and still rising.

That stream gauge hit 55,000cfs once in 2010, otherwise once at 15,000cfs in 2008. Most "flood" events there register 3,000-6,000cfs. This one is a doozy!

Sounds like good surfing.