The Arizona Monsoon Tour Starts This Week

[IanM]

If it's anything like last years trip, we can expect some stunning pics and videos. And we can also sit here smug in our mild temperatures while they roast in 40C+ out in the desert...

[Arron]

gutted! Enjoy you lucky sods! Maybe I'll look for flights for the second chase season in September

[craig1uk]

So excited to follow this tour, sad not to be on it tho it's going to be amazing out there, have a safe trip all and a great time

Craig

[Paul Sherman]

Actually not looking as hot as last year weather wise Ian. Highs for Wednesday through to Friday only up to 39c, so around the 100f mark as opposed to the stupid 118-125f last year.

But one thing that does look great is the forecast of Storms pretty much everywhere from Tucson upto the Grand Canyon most days.

Flagstaff looks like being around 78-80f all week with Storms everyday.

Phoenix looks like being 97-102f with storms upto Friday then Dry Weekend.

Tucson looks like being 94-99f with storms every day as far as they go so far.

Should be some great variety with location in the first half of the trip.

[Dorsetbred]

Looking forward to some great photography from you all

[davelp]

Looking forward to it. Will be doing my best to keep the photo junkies happy

[ItIsGee]

gutted! Enjoy you lucky sods! Maybe I'll look for flights for the second chase season in September

tempting!!!!!!!!!!

[davelp]

Blog time again for those who are suffering withdrawal. First entry here.

http://www.dp-outdoors.com/storm-chase/here-we-go-again/

[Roger J Smith]

Bookmark this if you're playing along at home ... looks very active today (MDT is seven hours behind BST).

http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=FSX&product=NCR&overlay=11101111&loop=yes

We won't be chasing during this NW chase period but possibly a bit later in the season, hope to have some bonus pictures eventually.

[craig1uk]

Cheers Roger, I think Arizona is in MST, which is 8 hours behind us in BST , look forward to your pics

Craig

[IanM]

They arrived, after having to skirt huge storms around the area, a nice gentle rollercoaster ride in to land.

[Roger J Smith]

MST = Mountain standard time

MDT = Mountain daylight time (this is what Utah was on last year, not sure about Arizona but MST does not mean "summer time" it means standard time like GMT) ... we drove through parts of Arizona and I'm pretty sure the clocks were same as Utah in Page at least.

A few places in N America don't change to summer time for example Saskatchewan stays on CST all year. This means you don't change your watch heading east from Alberta in summer. If they went to summer (daylight) time the sun would be setting pretty close to 11 pm at the end of June.

Las Vegas and most or all of Nevada is on PST and PDT like Vancouver and California, Oregon, Washington state.

Today there is unusually high humidity across the southwest U.S., (PHX dp is 72F, Las Vegas last hour 22/20) and flash flooding in the south Las Vegas Henderson and Boulder Dam areas. We were there a year ago today and it was 44 C and clear. I think the highest dew point we saw in our week last year was perhaps 12 C in a storm on Boulder Mountain.