Hurricane Newton came up the Baja and into Arizona and New Mexico. Flash flood warnings were posted for both states and I battened down the hatches here at the
Painted Pony Resort to get ready for some significant rains. Unlike
Hurricane Odile 2 years ago, Newton did not deliver the anticipated rainfall totals to the San Simon Valley. While many residents I'm sure are happy to not have the roads wash out, we sure could use the rains. The estate received a total of 0.8" from the remnants of the storm with higher rainfall totals to the west. The morning after the storm I captured the image below of Portal Peak with some sun and lingering clouds from the storm. This brings the yearly rainfall total to 6.93" so far for the year.
Hurricanes reaching Arizona are not unknown, with 47 hurricanes/tropical storms/depressions having reached Arizona since 1921. A frequency of one ever couple of years. I never thought of hurricanes reaching the high desert but they do and apparently on a regular basis. Although heavy rains can cause problems on denuded landscapes,
restoration efforts can minimize the negative effects by slowing the water.
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| Portal Peak after the rains. |
We got 1" from Newton over 2 days. Odile brought over 8" over 2 days and miraculously our road did not change. Must have been the long time raining rather than a downpour in 15 minutes that can do real damage.
ReplyDeleteI was out with the weed whacker yesterday. The grass is growing like weeds! Knee high or higher in just days!
It is amazing how quickly the plants respond to any rainfall. I really love it when the desert greens up but the rains do mean weeds and I'm out with herbicide to keep all the open graveled areas clean.
ReplyDeleteI reported over 3 and 1/2 inches rain to Howard for September. Three days of ~ 1 inch of rain from various storms plus some smaller amounts. On the hike Thursday, someone said "what storm?" so storms DO come here but so many we cannot keep track of the names!
ReplyDeleteI reported only 1.94" for September and I'm due north of your place by about 10 miles. The variability in rainfall around the valley as influenced by Chiricahuas and Peloncillos combined with the strength of southerly a air flow I suspect would explain much of the variance around the valley.
ReplyDeleteIt is great [and wise] that Howard gets rain input from all over the valley. The report used to JUST be Bob Morse so one report from Portal did not show the variability.
ReplyDelete