The Winslow sounding continues dry and stable. The low-level moisture has continued to increase during the night and Phoenix carried a dewpoint of 64 F at 1400 UTC this morning. At the same time Luke carried a 65 F dewpoint and southwest winds at 17 gust to 24 kts. BUT no data are available to detect this. P chart of the 23 UTC sounding from Luke Air Force Base on July 17, 1994.
Wind speeds are in knots.
The small box indicates the location of Phoenix, and the Salt and Verde River Basins are outlined. A strong shortwave or vorticity lobe rotated around the cutoff low and initiated widespread and early storms in the Valley and much of central to western Arizona. The overall situation resembled Smith and Galls' tropical squall setting and the storm activity was impressive. The convective line moved rapidly westward with residual stratiform rain and high based showers continuing through much of the night. Although there were numerous storms in the Valley, there were no reports of severe weather and SRP experienced only some faults on low-grade lines.