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Arizona Monsoon Season 1999
(and a little from the previous winter)
Rare Snowfall in Phoenix
Arizona Dust Storm (Haboob) Movie
Severe Thunderstorm with Odd Feature
Microburst Damages Falcon Field
In late 1998 we had an extremely unusual event in Phoenix: snowfall. These images were taken at my home during that event.
Above is a stone bench next to the swimming pool. Note the snow on top. This is the first time we have ever seen snow accumulation in Arizona.
Above is a shot of a neighbor's window showing how heavy the snow was and how big the flakes were.
Above is snow falling in front of the house. Note the blooming Bouganvilla bush to the right, and the mountains obscured by snow in the background.
Once the snowfall ceased, the mountains 1/4 mile north NW of our home 1/4 mile were coated in white and the tops obscured in the clouds. In 13 years at this location, we have never seen anything like this.
July 7, 1999
AVI Movie / QuickTime Movie
This is a haboob moving roughly north to south as seen from my home. At the left is the south flank of Mummy Mountain, and at the right is the NE end (rump) of Camelback Mountain. You can click on the appropriate link for a short time-lapse movie. Unfortunately the compression used suffers from color aliasing. The color of the dust cloud is actually close to a uniform tan.
August 27, 1999 - Paradise Valley, AZ
This is a Time Lapse Animation of Another Severe Thunderstom... It shows the drop of a broad area of rain, and meanwile the clouds near the camera appear to be rotating cylonically.
September 19, 1999 - Paradise Valley, AZ
Time Lapse of Anticyclonic Rotation of Very Severe Thunderstorm
As you watch this, you may see a rotating feature pendant from the thunderstorm. This is *not* a tornado but is rather some kind of eddy. If this were played back in real time (rather than the time lapse format here), you would hardly notice the motion.
August 27, 1999 - Paradise Valley, AZ
This is a Time Lapse Animation of Another Severe Thunderstom... It shows the drop of a broad area of rain, and meanwile the clouds near the camera appear to be rotating cylonically.
September 14,1999 - Microburst Damages Falcon Field
This time-lapse movie shows a microburst in creation. The rainshaft shown in the still image above, poised just over the gust front from a previous microburst (shown at the start of the video), appears to have been the one that caused damage at Falcon Field in Mesa. Click on the image to run the video clip. Because of its low contrast and high speed, you may want to run it several times.
last update 9/19/99