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http://www.azcentral.com
Recent rains post stunning numbers
Phoenix records third-wettest Jan.-Feb. in over 100 years
Shaun McKinnon
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 27, 2005 12:00 AM
Take a good pair of mud boots if you have business in Cave Creek: It's going to be a while before it dries out in what has become Maricopa County's version of a rain forest.
Since Jan. 1, a rain gauge 1 mile west of Cave Creek Town Hall has recorded 11.02 inches of rain, more than twice the 4.86 inches that has fallen at Sky Harbor International Airport.
That makes Cave Creek the county's rainiest place where people actually live. advertisement
Gauges farther north actually picked up even more rain: At the top of Mount Union, 10 miles southeast of Prescott, 19.33 inches has fallen since the year's start, and at nearby Horsethief Basin the total is nearly 16 inches.
Those totals shouldn't detract from Sky Harbor's official total, which made this the third-wettest January and February in more than 100 years, according to the National Weather Service.
But the storms definitely dumped the most rain in the higher elevations of central Arizona, which doesn't surprise meteorologists.
Even a modest upslope can make a difference, wringing more moisture from the clouds as the air rises.
"It can happen with a gradual rise," said Doug Green, science officer for the Weather Service in Phoenix.
"You wouldn't think it would make that much difference, but it does. The mountains focus the rain as the air gets lifted. You don't need Mount Everest to make it happen."
Rain totals from Jan. 1 through Friday generally hit between 8 and 11 inches in the slopes that surround the Valley: 10.67 inches at the Sunset Point rest stop on Interstate 17; 10.08 inches at Horseshoe Lake; 9.96 inches near Pima and Cave Creek roads; 8.78 inches at the Fountain Hills fire station on Palisades Boulevard.
Farther down in the Valley, the totals were still impressive, but the differences from one place to another were less pronounced.
At Pima Road and Union Hills Drive, 7.64 inches fell; at Grand and Peoria avenues, the total was 7.05 inches; at Broadway Road and Mill Avenue in Tempe, 6.38 inches; and near Shea Boulevard and 44th Street, the two-month total was 5.94 inches.
Totals generally were lower in the southeast Valley and higher in the northeast and northwest.
Green said that's because the storms have tracked farther north than, for example, the summer monsoon storms, when the southeast Valley often gets hit hard.
The most recent storm was more hit-and-miss than the earlier ones, in part because it developed a convective tendency, which is what produced the thunder and lightning. Those storms can dump heavy rain in one area and miss another entirely.
If it seemed as if the rain would never end last week, know this: Sky Harbor recorded measurable precipitation for eight consecutive days, which is the third-longest streak ever and just two days shy of the all-time record set in 1926.
this makes 29 days straight without the sun
