Happy Pi Day!

It’s Pi Day, 3.14.  A friend of mine reminded me on Facebook, so I reminded everyone else.  It’s getting a few comments, like this one:

“e to the x dy, dx. e to the x, dx.. cosine, secant, tangent, sin, 3.14159!”

So, I thought I’d record it.

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Like I said, Happy Pi Day!

Coyote Crossing!

It’s all here on my Hummingbird Feeder Cam site.  Coyotes crossing the empty lot below the apartment in broad daylight! Meanwhile, a hummingbird flies up for some breakfast.

Winter Storm Watch Tomorrow Afternoon – Thursday AM

Tucson Weather: Rainfall Reports from Around Town

Catalina Mountain Snow Pics

It snowed overnight as advertised.  Just rain at the apartment.  .70″ is a nice rain overnight!  Above 4,000 feet that fell as snow.  That means the snow was pretty low on the mountains today.  I had to work this morning, so these pictures were taken in the early afternoon and the snow hadn’t retreated all that much.  Most of these pictures were taken at the trailhead to hike to Finger Rock located at the top of Alvernon in Tucson.  Be sure and click on the pics for full size versions.

Rainfall Totals and Counting. UPDATE: Totals from Rainlog.org

Thanx to KOLD’s Meteorologist Erin Jordan for the totals.  You can read them here.

Erin also reports that Tucson’s official rain gauge had 1.05″ of rain since midnight (still have all day to go!) shattering the old record of .60″  It’s now the 7th wettest January on record.

Other rainfall amounts range from 1 to 3 inches in the Catalina’s, generally and inch around town.  Looks like we had about an inch and a third near the apartment!

UPDATE: Here are the totals from Rainlog.org for the Tucson area.  I believe these numbers reflect the last 24 hours ending at 7:00 this morning.  Click on the pic for the interactive map.  Looks like I had just under an inch here near the apartment.

High Wind and Blizzard Warning!

A robust storm, as it were, is barreling toward Arizona and the effects across the area promise to be dramatic.  The headline is the strong wind.  A strong southerly jet stream is driving this strong storm and the combination will translate into very strong winds in the lower elevations and even stronger winds higher up.  Gusts to 55 mph by this afternoon will be likely in the Tucson area and gusts to near 70 mph are possible in the mountains.  That’s why the National Weather Service has issued a HIGH WIND WARNING  from 11 this morning until 2am Friday.

Tonight is when the main impact of the storm will be felt.  Normally winds will decrease at night because you lose the mixing of the atmosphere leaving the strongest winds above your head.  Tonight that may not be the case as scattered thunderstorms will have the capability of pulling some of those higher winds down to the surface.  It’s possible that the high winds won’t decrease tonight at all.

Last time we had winds this strong there was a fatal pileup on Interstate 10 near Casa Grande.  Thankfully we had some rain yesterday morning and again this morning.  I’m hoping that the rain we’ve had combined with what is coming will be enough to keep the dust down.  Still, caution should always be observed driving on the Interstate near those usual blowing dust areas.  Also high profile vehicles may have difficulty with this wind.  Definitely a two hands on the wheel kind of driving day.  It’s also going to be possible to see some damage from these winds.  Downed trees and stuff like that may occur in town.

Higher up, the winds will combine with a lot of snow.  That’s why the National Weather Service has issued a BLIZZARD WARNING above 7,000 feet for tonight and tomorrow morning.

Initially, the snow level will be around 8,000 feet.  Our last storm left a few inches of snow as low as 6,000 feet.  The rain combined with some melting snow could result in some flooding in mountain streams and perhaps downstream.  Otherwise, snow levels will drop below 7,000 tonight and 1 to 2 feet of new snow is possible in the mountains around Tucson combined with winds gusting as high as 70 mph.  The White Mountains could get as much as 4 feet of snow from this storm!

As far as rain amounts in the lower elevations, we are expecting generally 3/4 of an inch to an inch and a half with this system.  Some areas could exceed 2 inches if they get a thunderstorm or two.  This is great news!  We need the rain.  The snow pack will help us out too.

Snow in Tucson?

Well, maybe in the Foothills and out towards Vail.  After the cold front moves through tonight, temperatures will start to drop and so will the snow level.  It’s possible that by early Saturday morning there may be some snow showers right down to the valley floor!  Accumulating snow is expected above 4,000 feet, but it’s worth watching.  This will be the back side of the storm so we aren’t talking about a whole lot of snow, but it’s possible that Oracle, Tombstone, Sierra Vista, Benson, and some other places could pick up a few inches.  IF the snow level can manage to get down to the 2,500 foot level maybe we could finally see snow here at the apartment in Oro Valley.  It’s not likely, but when the possibility gets this close, I start holding out hope.

Bottom line to all this?  Enjoy the adventure but be careful out there!

Another much much weaker storm is headed our way early next week as the El Nino pattern is kicking in.  El Nino dried out or Monsoon last Summer, let’s hope we can now make up for it in the remaining months of Winter into early Spring.

I Shot a Deer!

With my camera, but still.

I decided that today would be a great day to start a morning hike along the Linda Vista Loop, just a couple miles up from the apartment (actually, I decided yesterday was a great day to start, but since I didn’t, today was a great day to start).  It was warmer than it’s been thanks to a nice cloud cover, but the wind was kinda gusty.  I figured I would warm up once I got on the trail. Turns out I was right.   50 degrees is kinda refreshing when you are huffing and puffing.   (the trail has a 300 foot vertical climb and I started out at a brisk pace… plus I am not in my best shape yet)

I was probably a little past half way around the loop when I heard some crashing through the bushes.  Two White-tailed Deer bounding by about 50 yards in front of me!  They keep trucking until they were out of sight, but then I guess one doubled back.  He was maybe 75 yards in front of me just sorta posed.  He gave me enough time to zoom in with my camera and get off a couple of shots.  I grazed him on the first shot, but the other two were dead on!  I feel like God rewarded me for getting off my lazy backside and getting out in His creation!  It was a great way to start the day, for sure.

Click on the pics from this morning’s hike for larger versions.

I’ll Be Home for Christmas

As in right here in my apartment.   It’s a bit odd that I don’t feel that bad about it.   I DO miss my kids and grandkids in Texas, but there is just no way I can swing a Christmas trip this year.  Other than missing them, I am good with laying low this year.

I have friends locally that are going to ask, “What are you doing for Christmas?”  and they might invite me by ’cause they feel sorry for me.  I appreciate it!  But honestly, I am good with some alone time.

It’s not usual, I guess, but I do very well in a crowd, one on one, and by myself.  When I first took the Myers-Briggs personality test when I was a teenager, I was right down the middle extrovert/introvert.  This surprises people I know, because when I am with people, the extrovert comes out.  However, I really need my alone time or I go a little crazy.  Of course, I need my hangin’ with the peeps time too or I go a little crazy.

I am looking forward to the two or three Christmas gatherings I have yet to attend in the next couple of weeks, but I am also looking forward to watching a little football Christmas Day and making some phone calls.  I’ll be home for Christmas.  Celebrating with my Savior on His Birthday observed :-)

Tucson Weather – What a Storm!

It’s 7:42 a.m. as I am starting to type this entry and skies are just now starting to clear.  Clouds will move out quickly, but leaving wind damage, as well as much needed rain and snow, in it’s wake.

I don’t have a lot of storm totals yet as far as rain and snow in the area, but the wind reports are dramatic.  The National Weather Service office in Tucson reports a 73 mph wind gust early this morning at the University of Arizona campus.  A window was reportedly blown in at a business in Sierra Vista thanks to winds gusting to 71.  A friend of mine on Facebook says a tree blew into his house in Oro Valley!  Now that the Sun is up and news crews are getting out, there should be more reports, and pictures, of what the strong winds did overnight.

The great part of the storm was the widespread rain and mountain snow.  The National Weather Service office in Flagstaff is reporting widespread snow totals of 18-24 inches in their area!  I’m hoping to hear that nearby Mt. Lemmon got a foot of new snow.  I am getting set to record the 7:55 a.m. news cut-in from KOLD-TV to see what they have to say about all of this.  I’ll add the video as an update if they have anything cool to report.

Meanwhile, our skies should clear quickly.  As the storm moves out, the winds will go with it, but still quite breezy this morning.  High this afternoon in the upper 50s.  Partly cloudy tonight with a low in the upper 30s.  Sunny tomorrow and a little warmer.

UPDATE 8:01 a.m.: KOLD-TV cut-in didn’t have much to say about wind damage or rain and snow reports.  Maybe at Noon.

UPDATE 10:54 a.m.:  First Alert Meteorologist Erin Jordan reports on KOLD.com that power is out on Mt. Lemmon.  She doesn’t have a snow report from them yet, but rain gauges below the snow line measured over an inch and a half.  That could mean over a foot and a half of snow at the top of the mountain!  Also, I just got the rain gauge reports from rainlog.org from around Tucson.  Looks like about a quarter of an inch near the apartment.  Some places as much as a half inch in the metro area.

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