An upper level low with cold temperatures aloft caused instability resulting in thunderstorms with small hail across Southeast Arizona.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS TWC wrote it up.
An upper level low with cold temperatures aloft caused instability resulting in thunderstorms with small hail across Southeast Arizona.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Tucson, AZ wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 8, 4:55 AM MST, 1 hour 5 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TUCSON AZ 455 AM MST MON DEC 8 2008 .SYNOPSIS...LOW PRESSURE WILL EXIT ARIZONA ON MONDAY...BUT WILL BE QUICKLY FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER COLDER STORM SYSTEM DIVING INTO EASTERN ARIZONA TUESDAY MORNING. THIS SECOND SYSTEM WILL PRODUCE ACCUMULATING SNOW FOR THE WHITE MOUNTAINS AND A FEW SHOWERS EAST OF TUCSON ON TUESDAY...ALONG WITH GUSTY NORTH WINDS AND MUCH COOLER TEMPERATURES. HIGH PRESSURE ALOFT RETURNS BY MIDWEEK WITH SUNSHINE AND WARMER TEMPERATURES. && .UPDATE...DECIDED TO UP POPS TO CHANCE CATEGORY FOR MUCH OF PIMA AND PINAL COUNTIES FOR SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS CURRENTLY MOVING THROUGH THE CENTRAL CWA. RAINFALL AMOUNTS ARE STILL EXPECTED TO BE LIGHT...ONE TO TWO TENTHS OF AN INCH FOR MOST LOCATIONS. THIS APPEARS TO BE THE MAIN AREA OF FORCING FROM THIS SYSTEM...WITH POPS QUICKLY DWINDLING FROM WEST TO EAST BEGINNING LATER THIS MORNING. NO OTHER CHANGES AT THIS TIME. .DISCUSSION...THREE SEPERATE STORM SYSTEMS TO DISCUSS THIS MORNING...TWO IN THE NEAR TERM AND WHAT APPEARS TO BE A SIGNIFICANT WEATHER PATTERN CHANGE COMING NEXT WEEKEND. FIRST THINGS FIRST...THE LOW PRESSURE AREA THAT HAD BEEN MEANDERING IN CALIFORNIA IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING KICKED EASTWARD ACROSS ARIZONA THIS MORNING. RADARS HAVE BEEN SHOWING NUMEROUS ECHOES ACROSS PINAL AND GRAHAM COUNTIES THIS MORNING...HEADING UP TOWARD THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. WITH THE DRY BOUNDARY LAYER IN PLACE...MUCH OF THIS IS LIKELY VIRGA. NONETHELESS...POPS WERE NUDGED UPWARD FOR THE NORTHEAST CWA FOR TODAY AS MOISTURE WILL BE SQUEEZED OUT EASIER ON THE HIGHER TERRAIN. THIS INITIAL ROUND OF ACTIVITY IS PASSING QUICKLY...BUT RADAR AND SATELLITE SHOW THE MAIN LOW STILL APPROACHING FROM SOUTHWEST ARIZONA. SOME RECENT LIGHTNING STRIKES DETECTED WITH THIS IN WESTERN PIMA COUNTY OVER THE LAST HOUR. SO SLIGHT CHANCE TO CHANCE POPS WERE RETAINED FROM ROUGHLY TUCSON EAST FOR TODAY. STILL APPEARS RAINFALL AMOUNTS WILL BE LIGHT...AND THAT MOST MEASURABLE PRECIP WILL FALL NORTH OF OUR CWA. THIS LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM IS BEING KICKED ALONG BY A MUCH STRONGER AND COLDER SYSTEM CURRENTLY DIVING SOUTH FROM IDAHO INTO UTAH THIS MORNING. THIS SECOND SYSTEM WILL ARRIVE IN EASTERN ARIZONA TONIGHT AND TUESDAY MORNING. POPS/QPF/SNOWFALL GRIDS WERE INCREASED SOMEWHAT FOR THE WHITE MOUNTAINS FOR THIS SYSTEM...BUT STILL EXPECT THAT THE MOUNTAIN TOPS WILL FALL SHORT OF ADVISORY LEVEL SNOWFALL CRITERIA. STILL...THE INCOMING SYSTEM IS RATHER POTENT SO THIS WILL HAVE TO BE STUDIED AGAIN ON THE DAY SHIFT. BY TUESDAY AFTERNOON THIS SYSTEM WILL BE DIVING WELL TO OUR SOUTHEAST TOWARD THE TEXAS BIG BEND. THE BIG STORY FROM THE KICKER SYSTEM TUESDAY WILL BE GUSTY NORTH WINDS AND NOTICEABLY COOLER TEMPERATURES...WITH GUIDANCE SUGGESTING TUCSON WILL STRUGGLE TO GET TO 60 DEGREES. WITH A NORTH WIND IT WILL FEEL QUITE BRISK EVEN WITH SUNSHINE RETURNING TUESDAY AFTERNOON. WEDNESDAY MORNING WILL BE THE COLDEST MORNING OF THE FORECAST BEHIND THIS STORM SYSTEM...WITH LOWER DESERTS AND TUCSON CRASHING INTO THE 30S. STILL...IT DOES NOT LOOK LIKE EASTERN PINAL AND PIMA COUNTIES WILL THREATEN FREEZING. THE AVERAGE FIRST FREEZE FOR TUCSON IS NOVEMBER 24TH...AND IT APPEARS THERE WILL BE NO FREEZES FOR THE NEXT 7 DAYS AT LEAST. WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY LOOK BEAUTIFUL...WITH HIGH PRESSURE ALOFT BUILDING IN FROM THE WEST AND AFTERNOON TEMPERATURES RETURNING TO ABOVE NORMAL LEVELS. GFS AND EUROPEAN MODELS SHOW CONSISTENCY INDICATING A MAJOR TROUGH DEVELOPING OVER THE WESTERN U.S. NEXT WEEKEND AND SINKING SOUTHWARD TOWARD ARIZONA EARLY NEXT WEEK. DUE TO THE CONSISTENCY DISPLAYED BY THE MODELS...NUDGED TEMPS DOWN AND POPS UP DURING THIS TIME FRAME. LOTS OF FINE TUNING WILL BE DONE WITH THIS SYSTEM THIS WEEK AS DETAILS BECOME CLEARER. .AVIATION...MOSTLY CLOUDY SKIES WITH BASES NEAR 10-12K FT AGL THROUGH MONDAY. ISOLATED SHOWERS EXPECTED THROUGH MONDAY...MOST LIKELY EAST AND NORTH OF TUCSON. WINDS BECOMING WEST/SOUTHWEST AT 5-15 KTS AT TAF SITES MONDAY AFTERNOON. AVIATION DISCUSSION NOT AMENDED FOR TAF AMENDMENTS. && .TWC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE. TURNER WEATHER.GOV/TUCSON
The Tucson radar (KEMX), 27 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 13:01 UTC.
1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.
Small hail resulted in numerous accidents on Highway 90 south of Benson. One of these accidents resulted in the fatality as a truck slid off the road into a concrete culvert.
As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.
| Event | Date | Age | Sex | Where | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail, Cochise | 2008-12-08 | 59 | Female | Vehicle/Towed Trailer | Indirect |
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Arizona in 2008Every state in 2008This day in weather historyWarnings in Arizona, December 2008
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 137447.