The 2013 Southwest Monsoon season still has three more weeks to go. Before it moves into the sometimes interesting transition period at the end of September and early October, here are some highlight photos. Except for the lightning shots, the rest of the shots were taken with my iPhone. It has drawbacks with noise, especially in low light areas, but it's so handy, and always with me that I'm getting shots that I otherwise might not be prepared for. (What that means is I need to make an effort to keep my camera with me more often.)
July 2, 2013
Panorama of a storm developing south of Flagstaff as seen near I-40 and 4th Street at 2:18 PM.
New development overhead a few minutes later was drawing in a bit of vorticity and sculpting a brief cinnamon bun into the cloud base.
July 3, 2013
The base of a dying updraft over east Flagstaff tapers to a point.
The dwindling remnants of the eroding storm base reveals a slowly rotating spindle--not rapid enough to be a shear funnel.
July 4, 2013
An active storm north of Mt. Elden puts on a beautiful show of ongoing anvil crawlers.
July 11, 2013
Pop-up convection develops west of Flagstaff as seen from Rt. 66 in east Flagstaff.
July 20, 2013
Lightning flickers behind a weak gust front east of Flagstaff as seen from Rt. 66.
July 23, 2013
Inflow, chilled by heavy precipitation, creates a rugged lowering in the rain free base of this storm over Schultz Pass. As seen from 4th Street in central Flagstaff
August 23, 2013
Dry outflow pushes a growing wall of dust northward from Tucson, as Picacho Peak rises above the dust and desert floor. The photo was taken by my wife, Amanda, as we drove north on I-10 toward Phoenix.
August 26, 2013
An ominous haboob blew into Phoenix, featuring a laminar updraft, intermittent shelf cloud and spectacular lightning after the gust front passed. This view is facing southeast as seen from near central Phoenix.
September 2, 2013
A beautifully lit and structured thunderstorm brews over the San Francisco Peaks as seen from Highway 89 in northeast Flagstaff.
September 7, 2013
Looking south as a clump of northbound thunderstorms pushes a ragged shelf cloud into east Flagstaff. September 7, 2013. (Another iPhone panorama, so some of the seams are a bit jumpy.)
