2010 CLIMATOLOGICAL SUMMARY FOR CLARITA VILLAGE SUBDIVISION TUCSON, ARIZONA
LATITUDE 32d 12.03m N LONGITUDE 110d 53.98m W ELEVATION 767.7m
THE FOLLOWING CLIMATOLOGICAL SUMMARY IS BASED
UPON OBSERVATIONS MADE DURING THE YEAR 2010 AT MY
RESIDENCE IN THE CLARITA VILLAGE SUBDIVISION IN
TUCSON. THE OFFICIAL DATA SUMMARIES FOR TUCSON ARE
BASED UPON OBSERVATIONS MADE AT TUCSON
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AND DAVIS-MONTHAN AFB. THIS
SUMMARY WILL BE UPDATED AS EACH MONTH'S DATA IS
SUMMARIZED.
TEMPERATURE (All Values in Degrees F):
MONTH Average Maximum Average Minimum Average Extreme Maximum Extreme Minimum
JAN 68.7 42.2 55.5 76 33
FEB 66.7 41.8 54.3 76 33
MAR 74.1 44.3 59.2 91 34
APR 81.5 51.0 66.2 92 41
MAY 91.1 58.5 74.8 101 43
JUN 101.9 70.0 85.9 110 60
JUL 102.9 78.5 90.7 111 70
AUG 100.0 75.8 87.9 106 69
SEP 99.3 71.5 85.4 104 62
OCT 87.5 59.9 73.7 102 49
NOV 74.7 44.6 59.7 90 26
DEC 72.2 43.4 57.8 85 27
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YEAR 85.1 56.8 70.9 111 26
PRECIPITATION (All Values in Inches):
MONTH Rainfall Maximum 24 hour Snowfall Thunderstorms Thunderstorm Days Peak Wind (mph)
JAN 2.77 1.11 0 0 0 228/25
FEB 2.41 0.94 0 2 2 227/21
MAR 0.83 0.50 0 0 0 245/28
APR 0.21 0.13 0 1 1 230/26
MAY 0.02 0.02 0 1 1 316/33
JUN 0.00 0.00 0 0 0 262/27
JUL 2.54 1.04 0 15 12 249/24
AUG 2.41 1.25 0 14 10 017/28
SEP 0.42 0.28 0 2 2 009/24
OCT 0.57 0.40 0 3 1 165/26
NOV 0.00 0.00 0 0 0 123/20
DEC 1.00 0.35 0 0 0 248/23
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YEAR 13.18 1.25 0 38 29 316/33
REMARKS: Fifteenth Warmest Year at the airport.
Twelfth straight year with above normal temperatures at the airport. However, this may be more of
a function of new and resited temperature sensors than due solely to any trend of actual
temperatures.
Ninth warmest average minimum temperatures with 74 100 degree highs observed versus a normal
of 55.
Two very major weather events occurred in Arizona during 2010. The first was the very intense
El Niño storm of January with the main center coming through on the 21st. The storm brought
record low sea level pressure readings plus a grand variety of weather including high winds,
tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, dust storms, and heavy rains and mountain snows. Severe
thunderstorms were accompanied by winds over 90 mph and hurricane force wind gusts
with very heavy snow accompanied the blizzard conditions in the mountains including the
Catalinas, Rincon, Santa Ritas, Huachuca, Chiricahua, and Piñaleño mountains of SE Arizona.
The second major event occurred on October 5th and 6th mostly west and north of Tucson. A
post monsoon transition pattern featuring an uusually strong trough which made a Pacific
moisture connection as it moved into Arizona. Helicity, shear and instability values plus more than
adequate moisture led to a massive severe weather outbreak which brought baseball sized hail,
strong winds and funnel clouds to the Phoenix area. The next day, the outbreak continued into
northern Arizona and adjacent parts of UT and NM as the severe thunderstorm outbreak became
tornadic. Flagstaff issued 23 tornado warnings on radar velocity signatures of which 8 were
confirmed despite the remoteness of the area of occurrence. The 8 confirmed tornadoes included
two that were seen from the NWS office and were videotaped as they passed very close to the
office. The 8 tornadoes observed on the 6th were the most ever in one day in Arizona. Additional
tornadoes occurred in UT and NM. Adding the confirmed tornado from January plus three during
the monsoon of which two occurred in Cochise County, Arizona had 12 confirmed tornadoes in
2010.
The monsoon was erratic and ranged from quite wet in far SE AZ to near normal around Tucson
to drier than normal from western Tucson west and north. A detailed discussion of the monsoon
will be in Special Topics.
