Rain, rain went away

The Associated Press Arizona Daily Wildcat Prisoners from the Cocopah state detention center fill bags with sand at Yuma Fire Station 1 in Yuma yesterday. The minimum security prisoners were brought in to help fill bags in preparation for remnants of Hurricane Nora which is heading towards Yuma and surrounding area.

Yuma and towns in western Pima County, however, received over 2 inches of rain.

The storm, which had been forecast to dump 1 to 4 inches of rain in the Tucson valley, failed to produce any measurable rainfall, said National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Meyer.

Though University of Arizona officials were prepared for the worst, the storm passed out of range of Tucson early yesterday evening.

"Thank goodness," said UA director of the Department of Facilities Management Al Tarcola. "We have had absolutely no problem whatsoever."

Despite its fizzled showing in Tucson, the tropical storm warranted the public warnings and advisories issued by the weather service, said meteorologist-in-charge of the Tucson office Marvin Shogren.

"This is one of the strongest storms ever to come on ground into the state of Arizona," Shogren said. "Most storms fall to tropical depression status by the time they enter the state, but this was a tropical storm when it came in."

Tropical storms are those that have sustained winds between 40 and 72 miles per hour. Depressions sustain winds less than 40 mph, Shogren said.

"We just didn't get the convection we expected. Sometimes the strongest storms don't necessarily bring the most rainfall, but the possibility exists," he said. Convection is the way air moves through a storm system.

In Yuma, the storm also failed to bear out its full potential.

The storm had left 2.4 inches of rain on Yuma by the time it had passed over the city at 6 p.m. That amount was well below the 6 inches forecasters believed possible.

Schools were closed and residents had fortified property with more than 300,000 sandbags to defend against Nora, but the rain and wind were intermittent as the storm passed overhead shortly before noon.

"This was the first good rain we've had in almost two years, and we're happy to see this rain," said Arretta Deal of Wellton, a town about 35 miles east of Yuma.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.