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By Amy C. Schweigert
Arizona Daily Wildcat
August 30, 1996
Despite fierce rains that have emptied 1.1 inches of rain and damaged trees on the UA campus this week, sprinklers were still watering campus lawns until yesterday morning, when the system was shut off.Just hours after Wednesday night's thunderstorm, sprinklers were running in at least two areas on campus, including west of the Engineering building and near Gila Residence Hall, at East Second Street and North Park Avenue.
Chuck Raetzman, assistant director of Operations Services at Facilities Management, said this is because the sprinkler system is computer-controlled and is not shut off automatically. He said Facilities Management personnel shut off the system yesterday morning.
Raetzman said Facilities Management tries to put two inches of water on campus lawns in a seven day period. The sprinkler system is shut off if the University of Arizona receives between half an inch and one inch of rain.
The amount of rainfall on campus is measured by an outside gauge, part of a $30,000 weather station on the east side of campus, Raetzman said.
Data from the station is compared to computer data in the Facilities Management office, he said. The department is checking the data again today to see if the system should be turned back on.
The storms also resulted in damaged trees and leaky roofs around campus.
Raetzman said university buildings affected by the rain were mostly those situated off campus. These structures included houses near campus that the university has purchased.
"This is usual because these houses are fairly old," Raetzman said about the leaks.
A list stating exactly which roofs were leaky was unavailable, he said.
Raetzman also said the University of Arizona has lost a few young trees to the rains, but the loss has been minimal compared to the last two years. He estimated that about half a dozen trees have been lost this year.
"We've been fairly lucky this year," he said.
Last year, the UA lost about 35 trees due to storms, and in 1994, about 90 were lost, Raetzman said.
Rain during this time of year is common because Tucson is in the last weeks of its traditional monsoon season, which usually ends the first week of September, said William Sellers, atmospheric sciences professor. He said Tucson's monsoon season normally begins in July.
A monsoon, or strong rain storm, usually accommodated by winds, results from a sift of circulating air currents in the atmosphere, Sellers said.
"An influx of warm, moist, unstable air moves into Arizona, replacing dry, stable air," creating the summer storms, he said.
Sellers said Tucson needs about 12 inches of rainfall per year. The summer monsoon rains bring about four inches of rain, while rain in the winter accounts for more than half of the annual rainfall, he said.
"Certainly we like the rain, and our problems have been minimal," Raetzman said.
News Editor Joseph Altman Jr. contributed to this report.
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