After my previous cloud-shortened session on Wednesday, 3 August 2022, the sky became totally overcast. Before sunrise on Thursday, 4 August, a strong thunderstorm came through with lots of lightning and rain (0.6") and another brief storm hit early afternoon (0.14"). Friday, 5 August, was cloudy. Saturday, 6 August, was partly cloudy. Early Sunday morning, 7 August, a brief thundershower came through (0.08").

Sunday had a pretty sunset.

Early Monday morning, 8 August, had a brief thunderstorm (0.18"). Another thunderstorm came through Monday night with heavy rain (0.75" in 30 minutes). I called in my National Weather Service (NWS) Trained Spotter report; five minutes later the NWS issued a flood warning for Oracle! Total rain from the storm before midnight was 1.0". Lightning was almost continuous during the storm; mostly cloud-to-cloud, but my webcams did capture some cloud-to-ground lightning.

After midnight Tuesday, 9 August, received an additional 0.38" from the storm. Another 0.1" rain fell shortly after midnight Wednesday, 10 August. Late Wednesday afternoon a very strong thunderstorm with lots of lightning and thunder hit Oracle with 0.5" rain in 10 minutes! The small storm cell also had pea-sized hail for about a minute. I reported the rainfall rate to the NWS Tucson office; the meteorologist there said it was an impressive rate (3" per hour). Fortunately, the storm moved away from Oracle so the total rain from this storm was only 0.7". Additional storms hit Wednesday evening (0.35"). More storms passed west of Oracle after sunset with some nice lightning shows (but no rain here). These photos are a merge of three and nine photos, respectively.

Click or tap on images for larger versions

Total rainfall for Wednesday was 1.43". Thursday, 11 August, and Friday, 12 August, were cloudy. Saturday night, 13 August, picked up 0.5" rain in 20 minutes with 1.17" in one hour (storm total 1.53"). Reported the rainfall rate to the NWS. There was a lot of lightning from the storm. My webcams captured a couple of bolts.

I took the Dome Cover OFF Sunday morning, 14 August, in preparation for a visit by two amateur astronomers from Tucson, Jim and John, to see my SkyShed POD observatory. The sky was partly cloudy during their 1 hour 15 minute visit. After they left, with more thunderstorms in the forecast for Sunday night and the upcoming week I put the Dome Cover back ON.

Monsoon 2022 has been very active. Since the 16th of June, I've only had three clear nights to be in the observatory (6 July, 7 July, and 3 August). If the forecasts hold for this week, I won't be back in the observatory any time soon.

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A Facebook group has been created for the David H. Levy Arizona Dark Sky Star Party: Oracle Dark Sky Cultural Festival. More information will be added as details of the event are finalized.

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