Day 4 - we get rained on!

An early-ish start to the day, after more thoughtful staring at forecast maps and satellite imagery etc. We decided to head east and then south to the rim to intercept convection. Our plan was to set out the RAWS and - maybe - SODAR in the anticipated path of cells.

At Holbrook we turned south, after an extremely enlightening radio clip inviting us to visit Meteor Crater. "ALMOST two and a half miles in circumference". But not quite, I guess. Anyway, after the crater excitement, and nice views of the Painted Desert, we bombed south towards Snowflake and Show Low. Along the way, in an elevated flat plateau area with views for miles, we chanced upon a nicely developing storm, so we stopped to take about a million photos. The more we looked, the more we liked it. So , we drove away and then snuck back up on it while it wasn't looking. That technique worked well, as did the part about barreling down dirt roads at high speeds!

We got to spend some time parked under the path of several heavy rain shafts, complete with small hail (petite pea sized), and lightning/thunder. One strike happened while I was in the car (videotaping) and everybody else was outside UNTIL lightning hit REAL CLOSE. It was amazing and amusing to see how fast they all jumped back into the vehicles!!

One result of this episode was - dirty vehicles! As far as I'm concerned, this is a mandatory feature of a good road trip.

Lunch at McDonalds in Snowflake, followed by another thought session on which way to go next. Main problem was that very dry air was moving in steadily from the west, shutting down convection. Hence we bombed back north to I-40, and then east. Next problem - not too many (paved) roads in Arizona, which limited our options. So we stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park Visitor Center, and set up a RAWS and released balloons. A nice park ranger lady came out and said it was just fine to steal their data, and the head park ranger guy mentioned (sternly) that in future we should ask permission BEFORE setting up the RAWS :-)

Got back to the hotel at 6:45pm and headed to dinner. And now here we are at 10:05 pm STILL WORKING! Discussing tomorrow's forecast, and what happened today. Of course, with all this driving around and discussing, there's been no time to look at data!!!