I Love The Rain

Just a quick one - I heard the thunder for a little while, and saw that out of the northeast windows of the house there were black clouds, but outside of the south side of the house, there was blue sky.

Typical monsoon clouds.

All of a sudden - the giant clap of thunder and a downpour. I go running outside with the dogs. I do happy rain dances.

It's all over in about 10 minutes.

More more more, I want more....

Monsoon Flood

Our last year in Philadelphia, it rained 18 weekends in a row. In Tucson, when it rains, it's a BIG event. Right now, it is monsoon season. Incredible thunder storms that can do amazing damage in a very very short amount of time. All throughout the southwest, there are 'washes', that are dry, 99% of the time. And then the rains come, and the washes fill with water, FAST rushing water. Sometimes, for the big washes, they close the roads. They've built bridges over the really really big washes, that turn into major rivers (30 feet deep, it can get). We love monsoon season.

Except it can get scary. Like when the lightning hits 10 feet outside your door, and when your yard turns into a river. Our dirt road has a wash that comes in just across our driveway. It makes a turn, and then continues on the other side of our horse arena. The road becomes impassable.

Next time, I'll get pictures of that. There was too much lightning to venture out to the end of the driveway. So here's some shots of my flooding desert yard, taken from the relative safety of my porch. The water ended up coming right up to both my back door and my front door. I was starting to think about sand bags.

This all happened just before dinner. After dinner, the worst seemed to be over. My 15 year old wanted to go to a friend's house. I offered to drive him. His friend just lives 5 minutes away. My younger son came with me.

Then, we couldn't get home. Every road we tried was flooded, including the "front" way into our road. I ended up going way around, and thankfully those roads were not as badly flooded.

Oh, and our garage flooded. Reminds me that I need to have a yard sale. Or just call the Salvation Army, I want to get rid of all the junk.

Before it floods again.

Monsoon!

Our last spring and summer in Philadelphia, it rained 18 weekends in a row. We were happy to leave, and come to a land of endless blue skies and sunshine.



Blue skies and sunshine can get really OLD, after a while.



Ecstasy. The monsoon season has come to the Old Pueblo. !! I LOVE it when there are clouds in the sky. It breaks up the monotony.




But yesterday, the clouds REALLY built up. Late in the day, it started. Lightning, thunder. You can see rain shafts, off to the west. You know it's raining, over there. You wait and hope for rain where you are. The first few big drops, then it rolls in. Thunder, Lightning, RAIN. I sat outside, on my porch, and reveled in the smell of the rain. My drought stricken trees reveled in the wetness.

These pictures of the lightning over the city of Tucson, were taken by stickb0y7, you can find him on flickr. Used with permission. Amazing.

So, for now, I'll sit back and wait for the next storm. Impatiently.