BajaNomad

Monsoon-like weather in eastern San Diego county- any in Baja?

Whale-ista - 7-25-2014 at 12:59 PM

Lots of dark clouds over the eastern horizon. There was rain, thunder and lightning in inland San Diego this morning. But none reached us on the coast, darn it!

What's happening in northern Baja? Any similar conditions SOB? Is this a continuation of the storm cell that battered people down south yesterday?

micah202 - 7-25-2014 at 01:05 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Whale-ista
Is this a continuation of the storm cell that battered people down south yesterday?


........likely.

Osprey - 7-25-2014 at 02:09 PM

Got me confused. What is Monsoon-like? Do you connect that to wet weather to the east of Southern California?

Whale-ista - 7-25-2014 at 03:15 PM

Good question.

My sister in Flagstaff (elev: 7000 feet) calls these summertime thunder/lightning/rain events "monsoons" and they are needed to replenish water supplies in summer, after all the snow has melted and runoff to the thirsty people down south.

In Baja I hear them called "chubascos", and they seem to occur more at sea level vs. higher elevations- but last month I noticed dark rain clouds in the hills as I drove from Cabo Pulmo to La Paz.

So, I really don't know if there is a firm definition/difference... likewise, in tropical areas of Asia, India, Africa etc., "monsoon season" is a regular occurrence that people rely on for water.

Anyone else have a definition?

Osprey - 7-25-2014 at 03:32 PM

Yeah, I do. When the land heats up it creates a column of warm air rising above it (think of the Baja California peninsula) leaving a low pressure area which draws moisture (wind) from the sea. The condition, the wind, the rain, the season are all called monsoon. Don't mean to be picky but you could probably say yogurt was ice-creamish and I would not have blinked.

[Edited on 7-25-2014 by Osprey]

Bob53 - 7-25-2014 at 03:37 PM

Well, all I know is that it is super humid in Escondido right now.

Whale-ista - 7-25-2014 at 03:44 PM

OK, good points. So is "chubasco" the spanish word for "monsoon"? And does the moisture need to come from the sea, or can it come from inland water sources?

I ask because I've seen this type of weather system develop with frightening speed in Central California. And anyone who has backpacked the Sierras knows to plan for daily afternoon thunder/lightning and rain- "mountains make their own weather" in summer.

One August day I was in the White Mountains, east of the Owens Valley, when we saw dark clouds billowing up from the south and barrelling our way at incredible speed. Not sure where all that moisture came from but those clouds were definitely full.

We were at nearly 12,000 feet, driving a car with mt. bikes on top. Watching that storm come our way was something I'll never forget. It reached us, the skies darkened, the clouds opened up and rain and hail pelted our windows, which rattled as several loud thunderclaps echoed in the distance.

I don't know where the lightning hit, but we were grateful it was not nearby.

Weather... the more you think you know, the more it surprises you.

bajabuddha - 7-25-2014 at 03:57 PM

I had always thought 'Chubasco' was a hurricane down south. Living in southern New Mexico and southern Utah for the last 20 years, monsoonal moisture comes up around the end of June via the Sierra Madre Cordillera from Mexico, as described above. Mountains create the Orographic Effect, pulling up hot wet air to the cooler heights and condensing it, and the monsoons are all those storms caught up in the weather patterns of the summer season sending a plume of moisture from central Mexico all the way up the Arizona/New Mexico corridor clear to Montana; lasts until mid-September, mas o meno.

In Southeast Asia the monsoons meant 3 months of rain, rain, rain. Days and inches/ feet at a time. 20 year old men looking 60 out in the boonies, wrinkled like dishpan hands. Great for showering; grab a bar of soap, no need for a shower stall. Just a little too cool to do it here at 7,000 feet in the mountains, and the lightning is a definite deterrent.

BooJumMan - 7-25-2014 at 04:08 PM

I have no official definition or research or much of anything, but I always assumed chubasco to meant a quick-starting monsoonal system starting in the Cortez, like was seen 1-2 days ago over Cabo. That thing just came out of no-where. Most hurricanes will form quite a bit further south, while the chubascos are more local forming.

Bwana_John - 7-25-2014 at 04:16 PM

I believe the word "monsoon" just refers to a seasonal change in the prevailing direction of the weather, and the change in the amount of precipitation that comes with it.

In the SW US the weather usually comes from the north-west and is cool and dry, during the "monsoon" the weather comes from the south-east and is warm and wet.

Osprey - 7-25-2014 at 04:31 PM

Mexican fishermen in this little village use chubasco and hurricane as the same word. They assign the word tribunada to squalls. Tropical storms they call tormentas. I look in the dictionary but just for fun >> chubasco = squall. I'm not here to teach, I'm here to learn so I just do what they do, say what they say right up to point where I need to use the other small area of my brain to stay alive in some kind of emergency (like running out of Pacifico when the truck can't get across the arroyo through the raging river after a gullywasher).

55steve - 7-25-2014 at 04:44 PM

It was lightning & thunder with steady heavy (at times) rain this morning in Santee. The city maintenance crew was in the concrete drainage ditch behind our house with a tiny tractor clearing the debris when I saw him with the tractor at full throttle heading up the ditch - about 3 minutes later a 30" tall wall of debris/water/mud came hauling butt down the ditch. It was surprisingly loud! After the deluge subsided, the tractor was back in there cleaning up the mess.

55steve - 7-25-2014 at 04:46 PM

Arizona calls the summer rain 'monsoonal weather' according to my bro in Lake Havasu City.

DaliDali - 7-25-2014 at 04:47 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bwana_John
I believe the word "monsoon" just refers to a seasonal change in the prevailing direction of the weather, and the change in the amount of precipitation that comes with it.

In the SW US the weather usually comes from the north-west and is cool and dry, during the "monsoon" the weather comes from the south-east and is warm and wet.


Bingo......a "monsoon" is nothing more than a seasonal change in wind directions.

Osprey - 7-25-2014 at 04:52 PM

From the air, a couple of months ago, one could see just how barren this part of Baja California Sur is after nearly a year without rain --- a dead place, a true desert. Now that the southern mountains have received probably 10 inches of rain in a month, the whole Laguna range is a veritable short term jungle and no longer sends aloft the kind of heat that brought the water down on it to make it look as though one were flying over Guatemala.

David K - 7-25-2014 at 06:48 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 55steve
Arizona calls the summer rain 'monsoonal weather' according to my bro in Lake Havasu City.


They do indeed... and when the 'Zonies' come here to San Diego in the summer... they bring their terminology with them. We used to just call it 'tropical stuff from Baja'. A Chubasco is a wind event, sometimes a hurricane with rain, too... but that is used in Baja and I don't hear it in San Diego.

So, when we in coastal San Diego look east and see the giant thunder clouds over the desert or our mountains, we know it could be raining or pouring. Sadly, it rarely makes all the way to the coast, but it was overcast most of today and a few drops of rain fell in San Marcos this afternoon when I came home from Oceanside.

Osprey - 7-25-2014 at 06:57 PM

David K. Are you saying the wind/rain is coming from the east?

David K - 7-25-2014 at 07:00 PM

No.

Osprey - 7-25-2014 at 07:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by David K
Quote:
Originally posted by 55steve
Arizona calls the summer rain 'monsoonal weather' according to my bro in Lake Havasu City.


They do indeed... and when the 'Zonies' come here to San Diego in the summer... they bring their terminology with them. We used to just call it 'tropical stuff from Baja'. A Chubasco is a wind event, sometimes a hurricane with rain, too... but that is used in Baja and I don't hear it in San Diego.
[\quote]
So, when we in coastal San Diego look east and see the giant thunder clouds over the desert or our mountains, we know it could be raining or pouring. Sadly, it rarely makes all the way to the coast, but it was overcast most of today and a few drops of rain fell in San Marcos this afternoon when I came home from Oceanside.


Let's see "It rarely makes it all the way to the coast, etc."

[Edited on 7-26-2014 by Osprey]

BajaNomad - 7-25-2014 at 07:55 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsoon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chubasco

bajabuddha - 7-26-2014 at 05:02 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by BajaNomad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsoon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chubasco

Well, whadayaknow. Learn sumpin' new every day.

This means that the BFS that blossomed up like a rose out of nowhere the size of South Cape was a classic Chubasco, rather than a mere Tormenta and smaller than a Huracan. And the North American Monsoons are seasonal orographic moisture-laden weather patterns from the Mexican mountains streaming north up the cordilleras into Arizona, New Mexico, and points north.

Kewl.:smug:

[Edited on 7-26-2014 by bajabuddha]

David K - 7-26-2014 at 08:15 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Osprey
Quote:
Originally posted by David K
Quote:
Originally posted by 55steve
Arizona calls the summer rain 'monsoonal weather' according to my bro in Lake Havasu City.


They do indeed... and when the 'Zonies' come here to San Diego in the summer... they bring their terminology with them. We used to just call it 'tropical stuff from Baja'. A Chubasco is a wind event, sometimes a hurricane with rain, too... but that is used in Baja and I don't hear it in San Diego.
[\quote]
So, when we in coastal San Diego look east and see the giant thunder clouds over the desert or our mountains, we know it could be raining or pouring. Sadly, it rarely makes all the way to the coast, but it was overcast most of today and a few drops of rain fell in San Marcos this afternoon when I came home from Oceanside.


Let's see "It rarely makes it all the way to the coast, etc."

[Edited on 7-26-2014 by Osprey]


That is correct, it rarely does... but earlier you asked if I said it comes from the east. It comes from the south, and can spread wide over the county and Imperial County (spreading east and west).

The 'weather' comes north from the Gulf of California (humidity, rain, etc.). It can daily build into giant thunderheads over the mountains of Baja and San Diego County (as well as Arizona and the Imperial Valley desert).

So, the weather event comes from the south and builds up over our mountains (to the east of San Diego) and sometimes spreads wide and clouds over coastal San Diego. A couple times a year we get rain, sometimes heavy, from this event. It is all too brief and not frequent enough in our coastal and inland valley areas of San Diego County.

woody with a view - 7-26-2014 at 10:04 AM

the thunderheads come from the south on the wind over the desert east of here. sometimes the upper winds will spread these cells west over the mountains and OCCASIONALLY, we get rain in the summertime at the beaches in Sandy Eggo.

BajaRat - 7-26-2014 at 02:48 PM

It makes up an important rainfall total and temp - Rh+ in the four corners regions summer months............ rain glorious rain