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| Two different cloud types over the Chiricahua mountains on a monsoon afternoon. |
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| Lightning strikes from an overnight storm over the San Simon Valley and surrounding mountains |
A view from the Painted Pony Resort outside of Rodeo, New Mexico's most western town.
Click photograph to view large formatted image
Monday
Monsoon Indecision
The monsoon season is always a welcomed change, the summer rains bring the desert back to life, the greening of the grasses and new plant growth, the frantic rush of animals finding mates to start the next generation. It is a hectic pace and that extends to the cloud formations. Both the Chiricahua and Peloncillo Mountains go through several cycles of cloud building on a daily basis, sometimes bringing rain sometimes not. The image below was taken one afternoon during the current monsoon season and shows the indecision often seen in developing weather during the monsoon season. Cumulus clouds were developing just above the Chiricahua Mountains while higher up the clouds took on a runny egg appearance. The difference was the result of different wind speeds at different altitudes with higher winds at higher altitude smearing the developing cumulus clouds. No rain resulted from this buildup but the appearance of this cloudscape was particularly pleasing. This weather indecision culminated recently in a spectacular evening of lightning and rain. The bottom image shows the distribution of lightning strikes in the San Simon Valley and both mountain ranges as a result of this particular monsoon storm. Very localized and confined to a small (for the desert) area the storm produced rolling thunder constantly throughout the evening. An image of lightning from this storm taken by Steve Wolfe may be seen here and here. All in all it has been a great monsoon season with almost 8" of rain recorded at the Painted Pony Resort.
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Ned Hall, deceased rancher [used to own the land the Painted Pony is now on, fyi] used to say "it has to build" and if he had drops of rain 4 inches apart, he'd say "I have a 4 inch rain" and he'd laugh and laugh; we borrow that line today and WE laugh and laugh!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a 4" rain, drops 4" apart. It certainly describes some monsoon afternoons around here. Though I'd rather see a nice steady 0.5-1.0" of rain.
ReplyDeleteWe just had our road graded so when the lightning and dark clouds were up your way last evening, we breathed a sigh of relief! The road could be ruined quickly if a HUGE torrent comes down in the next month. We had the grading down NOW since the grader was in the neighborhood and we didn't have to pay travel, but is it worth it for the ulcer I may be getting? Nah
ReplyDeleteAll the rain was north of here last night. Hopefully there will not be any big gully washers between now and the end of monsoon season and your road will remain in good shape. Road work is a constant chore around here and with 3 miles of road I'm constantly working on keeping it smooth and washboard free. Unfortunately a good dirt road allows guests to drive fast which only makes washboards form faster, a never ending cycle.
ReplyDeleteYep we know washboards and have neighbors who drive WAY too fast. Another neighbor accused hubbie of making washboards with his ATV. We still laugh about that.
ReplyDeleteI can tell where people speed up and slow down on the road by the locations of washboarding. Kinda of funny but everyone seems to be in a rush but I have to admit that I so the same thing at times.
DeletePeople tell me to drive faster to minimize the effect of the washboarding but that just makes the washboarding worse! Its a Catch 22 for sure.
DeleteHere's something I found about washboarding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washboarding
DeleteThat IS interesting but the Highway Department is NOT going to put some other surface on our road! They won't even grade this! I'll still blame our neighbors who speed, not the other factors!
DeleteWhat caught my attention was the bit about driving over 5 mph creating washboards. It would appear that faster is not better.
DeleteLast September we had 8 and 1/2 inches of rain from Hurricane Odile. Let's hope history does not repeat itself with THAT!
ReplyDeleteWow, 8.5" that's a lot of water. The estate received about half that but it still flooded all the roads. The landscape restoration efforts really helped in diminishing the effects of all the rain by slowing the water and minimized damage.
ReplyDelete8.5" water is sometimes our annual rainfall. Hurricane Odile was really something! Amazingly our road was fine! [at least the road was no WORSE!] Willis pushed a couple feet of water with his old truck bumper on the part of the road nearest Rte 80 [we call that section "the chute"] He said it bent his bumper! (I should go measure his bumper from the ground to see how deep that water really was!)
ReplyDeleteTwo neighbors had driven out the day before and did fine. A couple days later the water was gone, just wet road.
I know some folks were mudded in across the valley and Bill Cloudt and Ken Joens got road equipment over there to work from both directions to help them get out. Zent Road was really bad, not sure how it is now.
Several years ago the total yearly rain here was 6", so it is truly feast or famine in the high desert with respect to yearly rain totals. My goal is to always spread the water flow as widely as possible across the landscape. It seems to me that when I cut down and concentrate the water flow (increasing flow rates) I end up with problems.
ReplyDelete