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Heavy rainfall in Arizona from the remnants of Rosa

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images, 25 September – 02 October [click to play MP4 animation]

Rosa became a Tropical Storm on 25 September 2018, and reached peak intensity as a Category 4 Hurricane on 28 September. As it gradually weakened and made landfall over Baja California on 02 October, its moisture moved across the US Desert Southwest causing heavy rainfall and flash flooding — parts of Arizona received record-setting rainfall (NWS Phoenix | NWS Flagstaff), with precipitation rates as high as 1 inch in 30 minutes in the Phoenix area. GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images during the 8 days from 25 September to 02 October (above) showed the life cycle of Rosa.

A closer look at Rosa during that same time period is shown below. The image interval is 15 minutes, except for 5-minute imagery during a test of Mode 4 scanning strategy on 01 October (from 0000-1550 UTC).

GOES-16 "Clean" Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images, 25 September - 02 October [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images, 25 September – 02 October [click to play MP4 animation]

The transport of tropical moisture associated with Rosa could be followed using the MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product (below). The moisture over southwestern Arizona on 02 October was >4 standard deviations above normal for that region and time of year.

MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product, 25 September - 02 October [click to play MP4 animation | MP4]

MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product, 25 September – 02 October [click to play MP4 animation | MP4]

The increase in deep tropical moisture was very evident in plots of rawinsonde data from Tucson, Arizona (below) — Total Precipitable Water peaked at 43.9 mm or 1.73 inches at 12 UTC on 01 October.

Plots of rawinsonde data from Tucson, Arizona 30 September - 02 October [click to enlarge]

Plots of rawinsonde data from Tucson, Arizona 30 September – 02 October [click to enlarge]



Categories: GOES-16, Heavy rain / flooding, Microwave, Tropical cyclones