A dust devil that formed on a relatively warm and calm day damaged one structure in Tucson.
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.
A dust devil that formed on a relatively warm and calm day damaged one structure in Tucson.
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 Apr 6, 2:56 PM MST, 4 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TUCSON AZ 256 PM MST FRI APR 6 2012 .SYNOPSIS...HIGH PRESSURE WILL BUILD INTO THE AREA THIS WEEKEND INTO EARLY NEXT WEEK RESULTING IN DRY CONDITIONS...PERIODS OF HIGH CLOUDS AND ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES. THE WARMEST TEMPERATURES SO FAR THIS YEAR WILL OCCUR ON MONDAY. A DISTURBANCE WILL TRACK THROUGH THE STATE ON WEDNESDAY BRINGING A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS TO THE WHITE MOUNTAINS FOLLOWED BY NEAR NORMAL TEMPERATURES THROUGH THE END OF NEXT WEEK. && .DISCUSSION...LOW PRESSURE CURRENTLY IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST CONTINUES TO WEAKEN CAUSING WESTERN TROUGH TO FLATTEN AND LIFT NORTHEAST. MID LEVEL PRESSURE GRADIENT HAS ALSO WEAKENED WITH ONLY A FEW BREEZES ACROSS GRAHAM AND GREENLEE COUNTIES. TEMPERATURES HAVE BEEN WARMING STEADILY THROUGH THE MORNING AND EARLY AFTERNOON TO NEAR SEASONAL NORMS. MID LEVEL SHORTWAVE OFF THE BAJA COAST AND SWLY FLOW ALOFT WILL USHER IN PERIODS OF HIGH CLOUDS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THIN CIRRUS WILL HAVE LITTLE IMPACT ON OVERNIGHT RADIATIONAL COOLING SO EXPECT TEMPERATURES TO DROP TO NEAR OR SLIGHTLY BELOW NORMAL TONIGHT. DRY CONDITIONS AND A RETURN TO ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES THIS WEEKEND AS HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS IN FROM THE SOUTH. AN OMEGA BLOCKING PATTERN WILL BECOME ESTABLISHED ALLOWING THE RIDGE AXIS TO PARK JUST EAST OF THE AREA THROUGH MID WEEK. BASED ON LATEST GUIDANCE...TUCSON SHOULD HAVE ITS FIRST EASTER IN THE 90S SINCE 1990. MONDAY STILL LOOKS TO BE THE WARMEST DAY...BUT UPPER LEVEL MOISTURE ADVECTION AND ASSOCIATED CLOUDINESS DUE TO THE PLACEMENT OF THE SUBTROPICAL JET WILL KEEP HIGHS FROM REACHING THE MID 90S. 700MB HIGH IS PROGGED TO LOCATE ACROSS SOUTHEAST TX/NORTHWEST GULF OF MEXICO MONDAY AND TUESDAY ALLOWING FOR MID LEVEL MOISTURE ADVECTION INTO WEST TEXAS/CENTRAL NEW MEXICO MONDAY AND TUESDAY. LATEST RUNS OF THE GFS/ECMWF/SREF PLACE AREA OF MOISTURE FURTHER EAST THAN PREVIOUS RUNS. THUS HAVE ALL BUT TAKEN OUT SLIGHT CHANCE POPS ACROSS THE WHITES MONDAY AND TUESDAY. ENERGY UNDERCUTTING THE CLOSED LOW WILL PROPAGATE THROUGH THE SOUTHWEST ON WEDNESDAY. 06/12Z GFS/GEFS/DGEX BRING SHORTWAVE INTO SOUTHERN CALI WEDNESDAY MORNING THEN QUICKLY EJECT IT NORTHEAST INTO NORTHERN ARIZONA WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. 06/12Z ECMWF IS MUCH DEEPER BRINGING SHORTWAVE THROUGH SOUTHERN ARIZONA WEDNESDAY AND INTO THE SOUTHERN PLAINS THEREAFTER. ALL SOLUTIONS POINTING TOWARD SOME MOISTURE AS WELL AS UPSLOPE FLOW SO WILL KEEP SLIGHT CHANCE POPS IN THE WHITES AND MONITOR FUTURE TRENDS FOR BETTER CONSENSUS TO TREND POPS UP OR DOWN. BREEZY CONDITIONS WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE WEDNESDAY. TEMPERATURES WILL ALSO BE TRICKY TO NAIL DOWN WITH ECMWF BEING MUCH COOLER THAN THE OTHER MODELS. HOWEVER...TEMPERATURES WILL BE AT LEAST 10 DEGS COOLER WEDNESDAY COMPARED TO TUESDAY. DECIDED TO LEAVE THE PREVIOUS FORECAST TREND IN PLACE AS IT TENDS TO BE WEIGHTED MORE TOWARD THE GFS/DGEX/GEFS SOLUTION. CLOSED LOW WILL FINALLY DISLODGE AND DIG INTO THE WESTERN STATES THE END OF NEXT WEEK/BEGINNING OF NEXT WEEKEND. THE MAIN IMPACTS WILL BE BREEZY TO WINDY CONDITIONS AND A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS. && .AVIATION...SOUTHWEST FLOW ALOFT WILL CONTINUE SPREAD SCT-BKN CIRRUS ACROSS THE AREA THROUGH LATE SATURDAY MORNING. OUTSIDE OF OCCASIONAL GUSTS TO 20 KTS EAST OF TUCSON UNTIL THIS EVENING...EXPECT DIURNALLY DRIVEN SURFACE WINDS LESS THAN 10 KTS THROUGH LATE SATURDAY MORNING. AVIATION DISCUSSION NOT UPDATED FOR TAF AMENDMENTS. && .FIRE WEATHER...DRY CONDITIONS WILL PREVAIL INTO NEXT WEEK WITH THE EXCEPTION OF A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS ACROSS THE WHITE MOUNTAINS WEDNESDAY. GENERALLY LIGHT TERRAIN DRIVEN WINDS WILL OCCUR INTO EARLY NEXT WEEK. HOWEVER...OCCASIONAL GUSTS WILL OCCUR DURING THE AFTERNOON HOURS DUE TO DAYTIME HEATING. WINDS WILL INCREASE WEDNESDAY AS A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM MOVES ACROSS THE AREA. SOME MINOR COOLING WILL OCCUR TODAY FOLLOWED BY A WARMING TREND SATURDAY THROUGH MONDAY. COOLER DAYTIME TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY. && .CLIMATE...THE CURRENT FORECAST HIGH FOR EASTER SUNDAY IN TUCSON OF 90 DEGREES WOULD BE THE WARMEST EASTER SINCE 1990 WHEN IT WAS 95 DEGREES. && .TWC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE. MINNICK WEATHER.GOV/TUCSON
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 dust devil. Local standard time, as filed.
A dust devil formed in a church parking lot near Pima and Swan in Tucson. The dust devil grew and moved over the church, displacing and damaging a number of roof tiles.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Arizona in 2012Every state in 2012This day in weather historyWarnings in Arizona, April 2012
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: 375212.