quote:

Originally posted by KMitch200:

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Originally posted by Rightwire:
Doesn't a monsoon require a tropical climate and a LOT of rain?

It's a dry rain.

I don't care who you are, but that right there is funny.

Jim

Crazy what nature can do.

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Originally posted by rburg:
Drive in that crap sometime. Then clean the formerly clear windshield and drive at night. You see a beautiful starlit night with sprakles everywhere. All across the front widow. Don't bother t try to clean it off, because the nice little grains of sand that only made a sound when they hit actually eroded the surface of the glass. Each impact is now a source of entertainment from other headlights at night.

No problem here.
Just get yourself a pair of night ops shades.


From the people who brought you HD vision Special Ops Sunglasses.

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Originally posted by Rightwire:
Doesn't a monsoon require a tropical climate and a LOT of rain?

I was a long-time Arizona resident of both the desert and up on the Plateau. “Monsoon” doesn’t mean what you think it means. It’s a seasonal shift in wind patterns. In Arizona (and points north) the monsoon typically begins around the Fourth of July. Residents hope for sufficient moisture picked up in the Gulf of California to bring rain to the desert. Most often—just higher humidity to go with the still hot temperatures. Swamp coolers lose their effectiveness with the coming of the monsoon.

By about now, enough moisture has been absorbed into the atmosphere to bring effective afternoon and evening rainstorms. What a blessing that is. From the picture, it appears that the desert went through July never receiving a good storm.

one of three things I miss the least about the valley of the sun. stroke

and another thing,

the news always show those things approaching, , Always!

but they never show you where they end up.

do they all stop in Prescott or somewhere out east ?

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Originally posted by TMats:
From the picture, it appears that the desert went through July never receiving a good storm.

Mostly evening thunderstorms. A low pressure seems to have parked itself over us, moving back and forth west->east and back again. As a result, the low's rotation shifts and we get lines of storms moving in different directions. Not a very productive monsoon season, rain-wise, so far. Currently, the humidity has dropped back into the 30's and 20's during the day, but the dew point temp remains at monsoon levels (>60 degrees), so there is plenty of moisture in the atmosphere.
 
Tom, a good explanation of what "monsoon" really means. In most parts of the world, the monsoon wind pattern shift brings torrential rains, and that's why most people associate monsoon with rain.
 
The Haboob is sort of a dry thunderstorm, and occurs where there is not enough moisture to form thundercells, but all of the high winds are present and they stir up the dust in the pattern you see. They occur mostly in the lower elevations (Phoenix and south), but we have had a couple out here in Wickenburg.
 

at the OP link there are a few other pics and this video

https://youtu.be/hsi-yERt1cg

2 Aug 2018 Radar Loop for Southern Arizona

BTW, don’t listen to those who explain the massive dust storms as “climate change.” My own belief is that they are largely due to a significant decline in cotton farming of the low desert between Phoenix and Tucson (think Casa Grande).

At one time 800,000 acres were in cotton in that part of the state. Now it’s down to 200,000. The desert ecosystem was disturbed in the rush to irrigated agriculture, then fields under cultivation decreased by 75%. It won’t return to natural soil cover without massive inputs. I recall many days driving between the University of Arizona and Wickenburg through almost unimaginable herds of migrating tumbleweeds

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That right there is why I live in the PNW.

I was born and raised in Lewiston, ID. And I clearly recall dust storms coming in from the west. Several of them that originated in a bunch of those wheat fields that had been plowed.

Not counting Mt. Saint Helens which left about 6 inches of dust in Lewiston.