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TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - In hopes of better predicting Arizona's mysterious monsoon storms, a team of 20 university and government researchers has identified two factors that commonly cause the events.
Scientists identified the two factors nearly a year after using planes, weather balloons and on-the-ground weather stations to track the formation of individual monsoon storms in a $1 million federally financed study in the Santa Catalina Mountains northeast of Tucson.
The first factor they identified is the rise of low clouds up an invisible atmospheric layer that spans 9,000 to 19,000 feet in elevation. As cumulus clouds rise from lower elevations, they carry and deposit warm air, getting thicker and taller before developing into storm clouds.
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