Friday, July 22, 2011

Live-Blogging Today's ABQ Storms

(1:18 p.m. PDT) First gust front appears at Mt. Taylor.

(2:18 p.m. PDT) Little storm south of San Ysidro began moving into the Jemez before the gust front from Mt. Taylor arrived.

Big storms in eastern NM today. Air flow more from the west today: yesterday, it was from the south.

(3:50 p.m. PDT) Nice big gust front roaring into the Upper Rio Puerco Valley from the collapsing storm in the Sierra Nacimiento. It's just reached the storm near San Ysidro, so we'll see what happens there.

Kind of a rinky-dink day for the ABQ. The main action is further east. Lots of little storm cells near Dalies: the radar can't see over the high terrain east of Acoma, and there are little storm cells lurking there, before they pop over the ridges and head east. There's a persistent little cell on the southern flank of Mt. Taylor. Rain for the Magdalenas and "M" Mountain.

(4:01 p.m. PDT) And wouldn't you know it, as soon as that gust front reached the cell near Zia, it started taking off!

(6:20 p.m. PDT) Take your attention away for a few hours, and wow! A storm just barreled into the ABQ metro area! Hammered it!

But it's important to remember that the catalyst for its growth was likely that gust front that came down the northern Rio Puerco Valley, about 2.5 hours ago, which spilled over into the Jemez River drainage. The cell near Zia took off when the gust front reached it (and headed east), and that cell in Rio Rancho didn't even exist until something spurred its growth. I bet it was that gust front!

No, correction. It was a gust front from the decaying Zia storm that triggered the Rio Rancho storm.

We live in a world of interconnections!

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