Rain! The Monsoon Rain!

Rain! The Monsoon Rain!

Rain! The monsoon rain arrived at my house this afternoon! Two and a half inches in less than 40 minutes! The rain falling straight down is coming off the roof. The rain at an angle is what was blowing through. And that pond…well, I’m actually happy to see it. The temperature dropped at least 20 degrees on my back porch.

monsoon rain
Monsoon Rain and Pond

My neighborhood slopes downward from the Sandia Mountains on the east to the Rio Grande on the west. Each individual home plot is more or less level, but the yards were designed with a depression precisely for the monsoon rains. They catch the rain and allow it to sink into the ground, rather than running off. Water was running high in the streets, and there was some flash flooding. But the yards just held the excess that fell there until the ground could absorb it.

The area of such heavy rain was fairly small. For those of you who know Albuquerque, the warning was for “around Academy, east of I-25.” I only wish I had gotten some fertilizer out 🙂

I know this image in terms of beauty is not a monsoon sunrise or monsoon sunset image. But for those of us who live in the high desert, a monsoon rain is beautiful and life-giving.

Edited July 18, 2017 to add the following:

1. Southwest Desert Monsoon Season:

Southwestern Monsoon
North American Monsoon (really the Southwestern Monsoon!)

2. Albuquerque’s Localized “Little Rain” 🙂 ))))))))) yesterday

From KOAT TV “Flash Floods Slam Duke City”

6 Replies to “Rain! The Monsoon Rain!”

  1. I have trouble putting desert together with monsoon rain! So glad it’s arrived for you though, the temp drop must be wonderful. 🙂

    1. Hi, Mel. It is a pretty unique phenomenon, but one I have taken for granted until someone asks me about it. I just added a couple of links to the post that explain why this occurs here. I lived in Tucson, Arizona in the late 1960’s to mid 1970’s, and I guess that is when I first became acquainted with it. In Tucson, I also became acquainted with “dry rivers” that actually flow underground, until the monsoons, when they can become raging rivers (as can small arroyos). Monsoon rain is just a part of the yearly cycle here, soon bringing the green chile harvest, then the hot air balloons, etc., etc. 🙂
      Yes, the temp drop was fabulous, but this morning, while cool, is muggy.
      Thanks for dropping by! It is always so nice to see you.

    1. Hi, Tim. This morning I posted a link (above) to some KOAT video shot up in the Heights yesterday. In some ways the extreme locality of the deluge reminds me of the “Desert Hurricane” that swept through Corrales and along the river several years ago. Up here, I had no idea a storm of any kind was happening, not even thunder! We’ve talked before about how different and abundant microclimates and environments are here in the Rio Grande Valley, and that little freak deluge is just another example. Thanks for reminding not only me, but also other readers who may not know our desert in summer, of that fact. Nice to see you this morning. Maybe you’ll get rain this afternoon 😉 but I hope it is not so heavy!

  2. Thanks for the extra information, Susan. I live in the sub-tropics, and my childhood and early marriage era consisted of a very similar weather pattern, with storms and flooding rains all through Summer. I guess it wasn’t ever enough rain to be considered a monsoon. These days the weather patterns are not as reliable, sadly.

    1. Hi, Mel. You can say that again, for weather patterns! Yesterday I went out and took some pics of the arroyo that runs behind the houses across the street from me, and debris that accumulated at the end of the street when water flooded the street in spite of the arroyo. I’ll try to post a couple in the next couple of days. In the meantime, I’d like some of the sunrises and especially sunsets that can happen at this time of year. 🙂
      Thanks for stopping by again!

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