We just returned from a 4 day trip to the Big Lake campground in the White Mountains of Arizona. Typically the Monsoon does not arrive in southern Arizona until the first of July but at Big Lake, at 9,200' they have been getting monsoonal afternoon thunderstorms for a couple of weeks now.
We rolled in at 1:15 on Wednesday just as the first very large drops of rain began to fall. The temperature was a pleasant 78 degrees {vs 105 back home in Tucson}, and settled in at our beautiful 66' long huge pull through site heavily treed with pines up to 90' and hundreds of smaller Aspens.
The rain quickly became a steady downpour with constant overhead lightning and after an hour suddenly got louder.... much louder as we realized it was hailing big time. The temperature dropped to 66 in ten minutes. Not much wind but all in all mother nature was definitely up on her hind legs. We settled into the front seats of our Class C with a beverage and enjoyed the show out the windshield with the cabover providing cover and keeping the the view clear.
I threw the purple towel over my bike {how's that for a Toad?}, to protect the paint from the hail and fortunately no damage...
Around 6 the mother of all lightning strikes exploded about 100 yards from our rig, {not much delay between flash and boom when they hit that close.} Here are a couple of pics of the damage to a {happily} unoccupied site:
A very large {80 - 90'}, pine took a direct hit with what was left of the main trunk coming down precisely across the middle of a pull through. Pieces the size of railroad ties were thrown 30 yards across the site. Had the site been occupied people would likely have been killed. Not much chance you would be out in weather like that.
The storm finally moved out around 9 and the rest of the week was gorgeous {as you can see by the other pics}. this weekend the campground is nearly full... what a difference a day makes.
:S
We rolled in at 1:15 on Wednesday just as the first very large drops of rain began to fall. The temperature was a pleasant 78 degrees {vs 105 back home in Tucson}, and settled in at our beautiful 66' long huge pull through site heavily treed with pines up to 90' and hundreds of smaller Aspens.
The rain quickly became a steady downpour with constant overhead lightning and after an hour suddenly got louder.... much louder as we realized it was hailing big time. The temperature dropped to 66 in ten minutes. Not much wind but all in all mother nature was definitely up on her hind legs. We settled into the front seats of our Class C with a beverage and enjoyed the show out the windshield with the cabover providing cover and keeping the the view clear.
I threw the purple towel over my bike {how's that for a Toad?}, to protect the paint from the hail and fortunately no damage...
Around 6 the mother of all lightning strikes exploded about 100 yards from our rig, {not much delay between flash and boom when they hit that close.} Here are a couple of pics of the damage to a {happily} unoccupied site:
A very large {80 - 90'}, pine took a direct hit with what was left of the main trunk coming down precisely across the middle of a pull through. Pieces the size of railroad ties were thrown 30 yards across the site. Had the site been occupied people would likely have been killed. Not much chance you would be out in weather like that.
The storm finally moved out around 9 and the rest of the week was gorgeous {as you can see by the other pics}. this weekend the campground is nearly full... what a difference a day makes.
:S
