Rain and Then Snow

Big Bug country received a nice amount of rain as two storms came our way the end of this week. The first storm came in Thursday and was just rain. We got a total of 1.77 inches! The Big Bug was flowing:

The next storm started as rain on Christmas Eve day, then turned to snow by the evening. It gave us our first white Christmas since we have lived in Arizona. We get some snow every winter, but getting it on Christmas was especially nice! This storm rain total was .63 inches with about 1/2 an inch of snow.

Merry Christmas!

Rain On the Way!

We woke up to a cloudy November morning. The weather forecasters are promising rain, so we will see. Often, the higher the percentage forecast, the less rain we seem to get! This time, they were right. By about 1 pm it started to sprinkle, just as I was outside planting some peas. I’m now sitting inside with the window cracked open, listening to the light, gentle rain. It is always a lovely sound here in dry country. We are supposed to get even more tonight and tomorrow. If so, this will be our first good winter rain of the season. Here’s hoping for many more!

On a different topic, yesterday NOAA successfully launched the new GOES-R weather satellite (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series). I am not a huge space geek, but I do like weather. It is supposed to be able to provide improved information about weather and the environment. I actually happened to see the launch online. Pretty neat stuff.

More Monsoon Action!

The storms have missed us a lot the past several weeks. We seem to be in a spot where they blow by on either side, but often leave us dry. Today was an exception. Nice downpour this morning, finally! I went out to see if the Big Bug was running and sure enough, it was! The storm also dropped our temps by 15 degrees, although it is still very sticky out there.

It was still raining when I went out, so the picture was taken from inside my car. So nice to see the Big Bug get some action again.

One more:

Happy Independence Day!

And a big thank-you to all who serve this country!

We missed all the rain yesterday, but monsoon just made up for it with a big downpour. Along with the rain came crazy lightning and thunder. After a particularly bright strike and loud crack of thunder, our power went out. Thankfully it came back after about 45 min.

We are sure the rain came because Mr. LOTBB put food out on the grill! 🙂  The pic. below is from yesterday, when we got only a few sprinkles. It is still raining here now. Yippee!!

And So It Begins

We got our first Monsoon 2015 rainstorm this morning. It woke us up in the wee hours about 1:30 am. It was pretty decent too, with nice rain, lightning, thunder and thankfully, no hail or other damage. I thought the storms had passed us by earlier in the evening, so this was a pleasant surprise!

I love monsoon season in Arizona! It is the best when we get rain but often, like late yesterday afternoon, even though the rain passed us by the clouds came along with the wind and cooled things off about 20 degrees. It was lovely to be able to get out of the 24/7 AC for a while and sit out on our deck, enjoying the breezes and cloudy sky.

Historic Rain Day

I’m writing this a week after the “Great Phoenix Flood” of September 8, 2014. We got rain in Big Bug country, but not as much as they did down in the valley. I had just set out for work at 6 am on Monday, when my boss called and told me how bad things were down there. I ended up staying home that day and watching the news in amazement. It was an incredible storm and unfortunately, many people had flood damage. Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun always need rain, but getting 2-5+ inches in one day was crazy. The storm set records for being the most rain received in one calendar day.

What happened? From what I understand, moisture from Hurricane Norbert combined with monsoon moisture to create this deluge. This week, another hurricane has developed. We are looking at Hurricane Odile, now a category 4, just off the Baja California Peninsula. I don’t know if Odile will push as much moisture as her big brother, but we will see. Right now, they are forecasting the most rain for Wednesday and Thursday.

As for the Big Bug, we did get rain last Monday, but “only” around an inch. Actually, Sunday I was heard saying that the storm was a “dud” and “where is all the rain”? It started around 3 am. The Big Bug was still flowing when I had a chance to take a few pictures.

A pretty sunset ended the crazy, historic day.