Live-Blogging ABQ Storms - 07/28/11

(2:45 p.m. PDT) The action today appears to be along the spine of the southern Rockies. There is rain east of the Sandias, Manzanos, and Los Pinos, and it looks like it might spill into the Rio Grande Valley. But not yet.

(3:00 p.m. PDT) Is that a gust front near Belen?

Oh, there is a bit of dryline action going on here: the air moving into ABQ from Texas is drier than air to the west. Maybe some rain will happen!

(3:50 p.m. PDT) Lots of rain fell earlier around Madrid. It's pretty wet east of the Sandias.

Powerful gust front came down into the Rio Grande Valley, down Tijeras Arroyo, and points south! The earlier gust front caused a flareup at Cerro de Los Lunas, and is now moving west in an impressively wide swath into the Rio Puerco Valley. The breadth of the gust front was obscured earlier: it was a lot bigger than just Belen.

It's not quite clear where these fronts are coming from - there is no obvious collapsing cumulonimbus tower. The mountains may be obscuring what's going on, at least, as far as the radar is concerned.

Another gust front from the Madrid storms is passing across the Rio Grande into northern Rio Rancho.

(4:10 p.m. PDT) Gust front action today! There seems to be a second gust front starting east of Belen. The gust front that passed from the Madrid storms caused a jemez flare-up as it passed through Santo Domingo, and now it's colliding with the earlier Belen gust front out west of Rio Rancho. Right now, that's a prime place to get convection! Meanwhile the powerful South Valley gust front is still pushing west.

(4:30 p.m. PDT) Almost like a gust front wall cresting over the West Mesa, heading west into the Rio Puerco Valley, originating from the Jemez, from the Sandias; even the Manzanos. It has caused a flare-up of convection in high terrain south of San Ysidro. Impressive on one hand, that it is so broad, but not impressive, in that it just cause flare-ups, and doesn't do more. Oh well, no one said these things had infinite power!

(5:10 p.m. PDT) The shock is passing into the Mt. Taylor area.