Monsoon's Last Hurrah

What has been a lackluster monsoon season with extensive dry spells and little rain from heaven's clouds, the monsoon returned to Southern Arizona today with not a whimper but a bang.

I captured a blazing sun fleeing the monsoon's pending wrath when I snapped this image from my front yard.

Tucson's Heavy Pounding

More from today's downpour.

From my OTHER blog:
This is the thunderstorm complex that marched into Tucson today and knocked out power to thousands. It downed trees, drowned cars (especially that knucklehead who tried to drive under the Stone Avenue bridge), and made rush hour traffic intolerable. I snapped this from my car as it came over the Santa Rita mountains east of Green Valley, a town that also got clobbered today. I managed to stay high and dry today but was able to capture about 50 cool shots of this event.

Click on the image and see the saguaros and cholla cacti all around. You know you're in southern Az when!

If only I had a bit wider of an angle...

Monsoon 2009

Times of Refreshing

From 98 degrees to 81 -- all within a 45 minute period and following a severe summer thunderstorm in the Arizona desert. You've got to be here and stand in the refreshing air to really understand the temporary state of bliss.

We all need a time of refreshing in our lives, just as the desert longs for the coolness of the rains.

Monsoon Floods

Arizona summers are usually hot, but they are most certainly not dry. The months of July, August, and September are the southern part of the state's wettest months, with warm moist tropical moisture being funneled from both gulfs of Mexico and California to the southeast and southwest.

As a result, this moisture surge is known as the summer monsoon, where on a typical day, mornings start out with clear cool skies only to give way to ominous storm clouds in the afternoon. Many storms are capable of producing several inches of rain in one hour, and due to the immense geographical altitude variation between the 10,000 foot mountain tops to the arid desert valley floors, dangerous flooding happens nearly everywhere.

Near where I live, this road is almost always closed during the storms. Even "Stupid Motorist Laws" have been enacted penalizing people for attempting to cross the washes and need to be rescued by emergency crews.

While it's a beautiful scene to watch empty creeks turn into raging rivers for a brief period, it's still best to remember when you drive up to one to "Turn around, Don't drown."

Nimbus