Bare with me… my internet remains down at the house (reason for no US post at all yesterday). However, I am able to at least post from wifi access outwith. Hope to have an engineer out in a day or so but until then, there will be no videos I’m afraid but plenty of written material still.

UPDATE: Check out this incredible visible satellite image of an approaching Dolores to the SW California coast. As Stu Ostro tweets, this is something you don’t see everyday!

Plenty of lightning flashes over California’s Central Coast this morning. Purple and yellow dashes represent strikes within the last 15-30 mins.

Check out this breathtaking and rare image capturing a lightning strike within Downtown LA yesterday morning. Courtesy of Harry B Chandler. Via LA Times Photos.

This palm tree caught fire yesterday afternoon on LA’s Echo Park after being struck by lightning.

Here’s lightning strike data for across the Southwest from yesterday. Monsoon is being enhanced by moisture from nearby Dolores.

Flash flood watch covers most of SoCal today!

ORIGINAL POST!

As forecasted for some time, we have a very active pattern across the Southwest these days with TWO moisture streams forcing explosive thunderstorms which are unleashing flooding rains across many areas of the Southwest. This area stretches from the beaches of Los Angeles and San Diego all the way east to Phoenix and up as far as northern Nevada and Utah.

1 is the classic monsoonal flow off Mexico with high pressure over Texas but the other is from the remains of Delores, once a major hurricane in the east Pacific.

With the help of strong daytime heating at this time of year, heavy thunderstorms have been blowing up across a fairly large swathe of the Desert Southwest and even Southern California including San Diego and Los Angeles.

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The models eventually take what’s left of Delores onshore in the coming days so there’s a continued heavy rain and storm threat.

Flash flooding has been occurring. This was a couple of days ago along Casino Drive in Laughlin, NV.

The flood threat continues not just today but for the next couple.

CAPE values and jet stream winds are modestly strong across the region.

Jet stream

NWS Phoenix

NWS Los Angeles

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Upper heights shall remain supressed through the upcoming 5 days and in the day 5-10, the Texas high drifts west into the Four Corners which means a likely weakening of the monsoonal flow. However, heights appear to remain slightly below normal.

Temperature wise expect it to remain below normal through the upcoming 5 days with a warmer following 5 days.

It remains very hot over the Central, Southern Plains, Southeast up into the Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys and it’s warming up in the Northeast temporarily ahead of the southeast bound cold front that’s removing the heat and humidity from the Midwest now.

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Tags: desert southwest, Hurricane Dolores, Las Vegas weather, monsoon, phoenix weather, southwest monsoon