CW3E AR Update: 16 February Post Event Summary

February 16, 2018

Click here for a pdf of this information.

Atmospheric River Impacts Southern Arizona

  • An AR made landfall over the Mexican Baja peninsula on 14 February 2018
  • Due to the favorable orientation of IVT relative to gaps in elevation along the Baja, the AR was able to penetrate inland and bring AR conditions and precipitation to Southern Arizona
  • Tucson, Arizona received ~1.3 inches of precipitation in 24 hours, ~10% of the average annual precipitation total, with storm total precipitation reaching ~1.5 inches
  • Precipitation from this event more than doubled the water year precipitation to date for the City of Tucson
  • Mt. Lemmon, to the northeast of Tucson, received 8.66 inches of precipitation over the course of the event

SSMI/SSMIS/AMSR2-derived Integrated Water Vapor (IWV)

Valid 0600 UTC 13 February – 1700 UTC 16 February 2018

Images from CIMSS/Univ. of Wisconsin

Click IVT or IWV image to see loop GFS Analysis

Valid 0600 UTC 12 February – 0600 UTC 16 February 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Summary provided by C. Hecht, F.M. Ralph; 2 PM PT Friday 16 February 2018

*Outlook products are considered experimental