Enjoying the Tucson summer {Monsoon}

[Desert_Captain]

Believe it or not the summers are our favorite time of year here. Yesterday brought another amazing Monsoon thunderstorm. The Monsoon brings spectacular storms that provide as much entertainment as color to the high Sonoran desert. This one rolled in at 2:00 and lasted until 4. Here is a shot of our front yard:



These storms make for some very interesting clouds formations:



While not as torrential as they can be (we have seen up to 4" in 20 minutes), we got 2" of rain in 2 hours. The rain was preceded by the usual plummeting of the temperature from 98 down to 72 in 15 minutes where it remained for the duration of the storm. Lots of lightning and thunder, often directly overhead but fortunately not much wind as we often see gusts approaching 50 or more. We only have a few more weeks before the Monsoon winds down and hope to enjoy many more storms before the season ends. :B

Here is a shot of our back yard, during really heavy rain the back yard fills up to 4" deep and logs start floating off of the wood pile, a couple of hours later it is bone dry:

[dave17352]

That second picture that shows what appears to be clouds almost at ground level is cool. I have seen many a thunderstorm here in Nebraska but nothing quite like that! Or is that a optical illusion?

[oldmattb]

Photo 2 looks like what I saw driving up Ina into Picture Rocks yesterday afternoon.

[jrp]

To each his own. I like my desert home in the winter, but I'm very happy to leave it vacant all summer, while I enjoy the cool rocky mountains of CO. Those summer monsoons may cool things off for a few hours, but they also raise the humidity to uncomfortable levels. When you're used to a dry 20% humidity level, suddenly pushing it up to 70% feels like a sauna; and the brief cooling ends quickly with a return to 100 degrees. Those living in the desert, always welcome a good rainfall, but one of the disadvantages of that heavy rain is a heavy growth of weeds following the rain. When I return each fall I'm faced with weeks of work to get rid of the new growth of evil "goat head" puncture vine weeds.

[Desert_Captain]

midnightsadie wrote:
is that rain warm?? I,d be out in it.

You betcha! Lots of fun to splash around in. :B

[midnightsadie]

is that rain warm?? I,d be out in it.