In the short distance between Tucson and the Sonoran border at Nogales, the atmosphere on this day was seriously charged up, and it manifest marvelously as cloud-to-ground lightning. Storms that fired in early afternoon on the Santa Rita Mountains to the east lingered there for a few hours before sending outflow across the I-19 corridor to the west, which in turn set off this convection. Other storms later formed farther west and northwest near sunset, much to my delight. Such outflow-driven discrete propagation, typically westward, is common for summertime “monsoonal” storms in Arizona and northern Mexico. Unlike me, the storms didn’t have to stop at the nearby, remote Border Patrol checkpoint; however, once it quickly became obvious my only smuggling was of digital storm photos, the Border Patrol officer and I had a nice conversation about the storms and Dallas Cowboys football.
5 W Amado AZ (15 Jul 19) Looking WSW
31.7191, -111.1501Charged Atmosphere in the Borderlands
In the short distance between Tucson and the Sonoran border at Nogales, the atmosphere on this day was seriously charged up, and it manifest marvelously as cloud-to-ground lightning. Storms that fired in early afternoon on the Santa Rita Mountains to the east lingered there for a few hours before sending outflow across the I-19 corridor to the west, which in turn set off this convection. Other storms later formed farther west and northwest near sunset, much to my delight. Such outflow-driven discrete propagation, typically westward, is common for summertime “monsoonal” storms in Arizona and northern Mexico. Unlike me, the storms didn’t have to stop at the nearby, remote Border Patrol checkpoint; however, once it quickly became obvious my only smuggling was of digital storm photos, the Border Patrol officer and I had a nice conversation about the storms and Dallas Cowboys football.
5 W Amado AZ (15 Jul 19) Looking WSW
31.7191, -111.1501