The North American Monsoon got an early start in northern Arizona this year with copious amounts of precipitation over the San Francisco Peaks and surrounding areas. Unfortunately, we are now experiencing an extended monsoon break with mostly clear skies and hot temperatures.
Here are some photograph taken during that wet period.
Here are the June rainfall totals from the Flagstaff rain gauge network.
A strong geomagnetic storm a few days ago (05 Nov 2023) triggered brilliant auroras over high and middle latitudes. At lower latitudes a different phenomena was observed. This was a Stable Auroral Red (SAR) Arc. But this feature is neither stable nor an aurora.
From the SpaceWeather.com web site:
During this past weekend’s strong G3-class geomagnetic storm, low-latitude auroras spread as far south as Texas and Arizona. Upon further review, most of those lights were not auroras at all…
SAR arcs were discovered in 1956 at the beginning of the Space Age. Researchers didn’t know what they were and unwittingly gave them a misleading name: “Stable Auroral Red arcs” or SAR arcs. In fact, SAR arcs are neither stable nor auroras.
Auroras appear when charged particles rain down from space, hitting the atmosphere and causing it to glow. SAR arcs form differently. They are a sign of heat energy leaking into the upper atmosphere from Earth’s ring current systemâa donut-shaped circuit carrying millions of amps around our planet.
Okay, so it was not an aurora. But it was still pretty amazing to witness and photograph. I even managed to capture a meteor that was part of the Taurid shower moving across the SAR.
But wait, there’s more. There was green airglow in the same part of the sky as the SAR.
Time-lapse of SAR arc and green airglow over northern Arizona (1908â2217 MST 05 November 2023.)
Summary: SAR arc, Taurid meteor,green airglow…and some coyotes.
This comet was discovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Hideo Nishimura. It was briefly visible in the morning twilight but became increasingly difficult as it got closer to the sun and was lost in the glare. It will very briefly be the evening sky this week but, again, the glare of the Sun may make it difficult to see.
Here are a few images taken in the pre-dawn hours on 08 September. In the foreground is Wukoki Pueblo in Wupatki National Monument.
Nikon D750, 85mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200, 10×3 seconds and stacked using Starry Landscape Stacker to reduce noise.
In a previous post I wrote how the North American Monsoon (NAM) was very late getting started in July. Fortunately, once started, it resulted in normal precipitation amounts for the month of August. Here are photographs and discussion of some of the events during the month.
The North American Monsoon (NAM) has been slow to get started this year. A general rule of thumb is it gets going around the 4th of July and is considered late (but still normal) by mid-July. Likewise an early start can occur as early as mid June–as it did last year.
During the month of July the GFS weather forecast model consistently showed the NAM getting started “Real Soon Now.” But the target was always several days away. Finally, late in the month the rains arrived as an inverted trough (IVT; def. 2) moved across Arizona.
There have been some photogenic storms. A little over a week ago I traveled to the South Rim of Grand Canyon hoping to get some lightning. Although there were some flashes they were far away. On the other hand, the sunset was pretty good. A band of clouds just above the horizon effectively blocked the Sun at my location while beams of light were getting under the clouds and into the canyon farther to the west. The alternating beams of light and shadow were pretty nice.
The following day I went to Wupatki National Monument in hopes of lightning and rainbows. There was a late afternoon storm that moved towards the Monument and produced a lot of lightning. As it got closer it weakened but was still dropping rain and a short time later a beautiful, full double rainbow appeared. All I needed to do was position myself so that I could get the rainbow arch to frame Wukoki Pueblo.
Time lapse of convection developing over the San Francisco Peaks with Marshall Lake in the foreground.
A new storm formed to my southeast as twilight came on and began to produce a lot of lightning. This was the 3rd act of the day and it was a good one.
Later in the week I took a short drive to Marshall Lake near Flagstaff to time lapse the early stages of convection over the San Francisco Peaks–and with some reflections in the waters of the lake. A few lightning bolts landed near the peaks adding to the show.
A few more trips to Grand Canyon rounded out the month.
And, now, the monsoon is on hiatus again.