Slow Start Today in Phoenix

Deborah is optimistic:

Huge line of clouds to south, like a tidal wave.

Befuddled by the dewpoint issue, I took a look at the water vapor satellite loops the Weather Service provides, and that clarified things a little. Between the old moisture moving out, and the new moisture moving in, there was a band of drier air sandwiched in-between. So, for much of the day, the dew point has been kind of low in Phoenix, and partly for that reason, and maybe partly because of the broken cloud cover, which ironically suppresses convection, things have been slow firing up in the Phoenix area. Some places are already fired up: the northern Sierra Madre, the Flagstaff area, and there's something of a "dry line" all along the Nevada-Utah border and down the Colorado River Valley, which is sparking storms (particularly around Las Vegas). But Phoenix? A bit slow off the mark.

But there are still a number of hours left in the day. We'll see what comes....