Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Harbinger of Monsoon

It's been hot - really hot - for days. Afternoons above a hundred according to the nifty digital thermometer Landlady gave me, which is hotter than usual. Yesterday broke cloudy and hazy, breezy and much cooler. Around two the storm struck.

Hardly any rain, which isn't unusual at first. When the storms are in the distance, you can see water falling from the clouds but evaporating before it hits the ground. Here it barely sprinkled. But the wind came in brief, fierce blasts that had Ghost running for cover.

Nothing here ever feels an obligation to be predictable, but if it follows its usual pattern it'll do this off and on for a couple of weeks and then settle down to regular afternoon storms. Moisture on the ground will accumulate until any storm might cause flash floods in the washes. Since various washes run in various directions and the storms come from any or all of those directions, you never know which wash will run or when. This will continue for a few months until it decides to stop. If it does. We call this "Monsoon," and it's part of life.

2 comments:

Matt said...

The pattern started here the middle of last week. Yesterday we got rain for the first time in 6 months! It was a gentle soaker, showered off and on for about two hours. It was enough to damp down the ashes from the various fires and to make the world smell like damp ashes and wet dogs.

Anonymous said...

Water falling from the clouds but evaporating before it hits the ground is called virga.