Wednesday, January 25, 2017

While on the subject of Arizona.

This is a good definition of monsoon from Wikipedia.



Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea. Usually, the term monsoon is used to refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally changing pattern, although technically there is also a dry phase. The term is sometimes incorrectly used for locally heavy but short-term rains, although these rains meet the dictionary definition of monsoon.

The picture below is not of a monsoon. Monsoons happen with large amounts of rain. The picture below is a microburst.

July 18 and 19, 2016
By David Baker

Casa Grande, Arizona - The monsoon (click here) returned on Monday and brought the Valley rain and caused some damage and flooding.
Trees were knocked down and branches fell on several cars in the area of 38th Street and Indian School in Phoenix.
"It was really scary," Jennifer Egan, who was inside a house, said. "I don't think I've ever been so scared in Arizona with the monsoons because of the trees."
Egan said she could hear the large trees in her front yard breaking apart in the wind.
"I heard the trees falling, and I didn't know if it was going to go on the house" or through a window, she said. One branch clipped her roof.
The strong winds also damaged some apartments near 26th Street and Thomas Road. Five people, two cats, and a dog were forced out of the apartments. The Red Cross is helping them out.
The power of the storm also picked up a trampoline and threw it into a car near 32nd Street and Broadway Road....
...Phoenix Aviation Department said. The airport reported nearly 65 mph gusts. Officials there also reported hail. All three runways are now open....
Hail is a microburst, not a monsoon. The video is of a monsoon rain in Africa.