Occult Thunderstorms

Phoenix, Arizona and vicinity have been hit by lots of thunderstorms in the last two days, but the storms have been studiously avoiding the rain gauges. Deborah reports:

Yesterday:

It rained for almost an hour and now this morning at dawn it smells like Georgia--+ it's over laden with heavy clouds!

Definitely a flux of moisture into the area. But from where exactly?

not caring--rain!!!

Interestingly, the moisture is flowing faster than the storms: moisture is passing THROUGH the storms...

it's heaviest cloud layer is north east right now.

Strange. But if it works, so be it!

did I mention--whoo hoo!! : )

Today:

I went to art walk early and left when lots of people showed up at 7:30 just as it started to thunder. Before we even got south enough to the zoo gale force rains hit. Couldn't see 10 feet ahead. I haven't seen that much water hit at once in years. It seemed to hit everything in the valley east of Central. Wow. As if that weren't enough it did it again at 2 AM.

AMAZING! The black swath in the sky was almost frightening looking-- so much water!!!

Peculiar: Sky Harbor is showing only a trace of rainfall = Tucson too....sometimes these storms have intense impact over very short distances....

A dry band is passing through Phoenix right now, and it's beginning to get humid again. Today may see similar rainfall events to the last two days.

These quasi-monsoonal storms baffle me, though. Something about them is eluding my understanding....