Finally some rain. Spring was a bust and the desert is parched. Everything is brown and it has been a hard time for the wildlife. The promised El Nino did not materialize and the irrigation could not keep up with dry weather. I struggled to get the front garden area at the
Painted Pony Resort looking presentable for guests partly the result of irrigation and partly because of a major pruning last winter where 15 yards of materiel was removed. Expecting good El Nino rains I heavily pruned all the plants and was relying on the rains to kick start the garden and allow new growth which would cover any pruning errors. But the rains never materialized here in the valley and I have been watering the plants by hand to supplement the irrigation. The yearly rainfall total currently stands at 1.33", not good for the first 6 months of the year but if the rain continues and the monsoons are strong this hardy landscape will recover.
The next day while writing the draft post clouds started to build again. A large buildup resulting in the last photograph which dissipated with some rain in the Chiricahua Mountains but none on the estate. A second buildup after sunset did deliver another 0.17" on the estate. Good news for the dry conditions in the valley.
 |
| Rain with the setting sun over the Chiricahua Mountains |
 |
| Panorama of the front garden after the rain |
 |
| Storm clouds the next day which yielded another 0.17" of rain |
Addendum:
One more photograph of the big buildup over the valley.
 |
| Brush Strokes. The edge of a large dissipating cumulus cloud formation. |
nice NICE photos of the clouds! I never look out the window I guess.
ReplyDeleteThank you Pat. I took the cloud images with the iPhone camera while the first 2 images were taken with the the little Canon point and shoot camera. I'm impressed with the image quality of the iPhone camera for some applications, especially the quick snapshot.
ReplyDeleteno rain in the 10 day forecast now. 107 predicted for Sunday, Father's Day which also happens this year to be my sister's birthday. Hope the weatherman [woman?] is WRONG.
DeleteSame here, we need the rain badly. I also do not relish the excessive heat warning the National Weather Service is predicting for Sunday through Wednesday http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=twc&wwa=excessive%20heat%20warning
DeleteYesterday we had what Ned Hall would call a 2" rain, rain drops that hit the window 2 inches apart. Then he'd laugh and laugh.
DeleteThere was thunder and a dark sky up in Owl Canyon in the afternoon so I closed up some truck windows. I'll look in the rain gauge but suspect I'll write down "a trace" for the monthly rain count.
We picked up about 0.5" over the past several days, all light rain, but I'm still below 2" for the year. Air conditioning went out while guests were in residence so I've been working furiously on AC problems but was successful in getting things back up and running.
ReplyDeleteWe had 0.75" the other day, thank goodness our road survived. I washed the mud off my truck later. Rain predicted today and then Friday which begins July.
ReplyDeleteRoads are always a worry with rain. I try to stay on top of my road work around here, with raking, grooming, and water diversion so guests have no problems accessing the estate. I've had to pull guests out of the mud when they made a wrong turn in the air park and got stuck in the mud.
ReplyDelete