Sunset Rays

Tucson made the national news today with flooding caused by torrential rains - leftovers from hurricane Norbert that passed off the Baja coast a few days back.  The official rainfall at the airport doubled the previous record for 8 September with 1.84" today, but only the 9th wettest September day of all times...  Still, that is a lot of rain when 12" a year is normal!  Unfortunately, 2 women lost their lives locally in separate incidents when their cars were swept away trying to cross flooded washes...  It is about the second thing you learn living in Arizona, do NOT enter a wash with water running (the first is about using sunscreen).

The rain ended in early afternoon, followed by clearing from the west.  After coming home, I was doing cat chores about sunset when something a little unusual was seen in the west.  A thunderhead far to the west, below my restricted horizon here in town, was casting a shadow into the sky.  Called a crepuscular ray, it was really neat to see the dark searchlight shape cast high into the sky.  After running for the camera, I got a frame or two, unfortunately I didn't notice the continuation into the east (anti-crepuscular ray) in time to catch the ray's re-convergence.  I even went looking for weather satellite images checking to see if I could find a possible candidate.  There were some candidates in western Maricopa County, but I gave up after a bit.  Still, fun to see and observe the cast shadow!