We now have a "monsoon season" in Arizona. Yes, we have awesome monsoons.....Our season now runs from the middle of June to the middle of September. Prior to this year, we knew our monsoon season was here after we experienced three consecutive days of 55 degree dewpoint. That still happens, but now we have a specific "season."
During our monsoons, our skies will fill with clouds typically coming from the north and east over Four Peaks to the North of Mesa, or the San Francisco Peaks........towards Flagstaff....we then have high winds, flooding, lightening, thunder, and HUGE dust storms.
Safety precautions to take when the monsoon does come blowing into town with high walls of dust heading toward you - if you are on the freeway, pull off of the freeway...and pull off the road to safety - don't put your foot on the brakes or else someone will think that you are leading the way. They typically blow through in a few minutes.
As a kid, I LOVED the monsoons (and I still do). I can tell it's coming before I even see the rain. I open my door, and I can smell the wet dust/dirt. The monsoon will blow through our community literally filling our neighborhood retention basins with water. I jokingly tell people that right now we're living in a lake community. Because we are so flat, there will be flooding in the low areas, and people are regularly warned NOT to drive through the streets that are flooded. AND they do it anyway. The next thing we see on the news are people having to be rescued because they don't heed the warnings.
I love this time of year, and have taken some photos of the monsoon clouds...I have yet to capture a great lightening shot, but I will, and then I'll share. Enjoy the pictures.
Mesa, Arizona Real Estate. Call me at: 480.216-3334 for information on purchasing or selling a home in Mesa, Arizona or surrounding towns. OR email me: Teri@TeriEllis.com. Feel free to visit one of my websites: HomesAzRE.com, MoveToMesaAz.com or MoveToSunnyAz.com. Or stop by my blogs at: Active Rain; or Phoenix Valley Real Estate Blog.
Mesa, Arizona Real Estate. Call me at: 480.382-8711 for information on purchasing or selling a home in Mesa, Arizona or surrounding towns. OR email me: Teri@TeriEllis.com. Feel free to visit my website: HomesAzRE.com, or stop by my blogs at: MesaAzRealEstateVoice and AzLadyInRed!
TERI, I think your Monsoon has made it to our area. We were so dry and now it is like the clouds have opened and they just won't close.
Marchel, I know Texas has gotten a lot of rain lately. Our's will come from the Gulf of Mexico....but this weekend we're dry. We love it!! ;-)
Teri: It has been somewhat monsoon'y up here in the Fort Worth/Dallas area for the past week or ten days. Some of the downpours have been in the middle of the night. When I heard the rain one night this week, I opened the garage door, and went and sat in a lawn chair just at the edge of the garage... and just say there... admiring Mother Nature's beauty. Thanks for sharing.
I love cloud pictures! I have a few of my own that I took!
Hi Teri I honestly had no idea that Arizona had monsoons. When I think of Arizona I think of great weather 365 days a year! It beats our cold winters any day:)
Karen Anne: I love the monsoons, love the rain, thunder, lightening AND the fact that it cools us down 20 degrees in that many moments. ;-)
Jeannette, I love the clouds too....especially the ones that will be coming in September. They are spectacular. ;-)
Bill, being from Arizona, I naturally assumed EVERYONE knew about our monsoons....I agree that it is beautiful all year, and even with the monsoons, rarely does it take up the entire day. Generally they come in during the latter part of the afternoon...during the time people are coming home from work, and then on into the evening. ;-)
Teri--This sounds like how a native Minnesotan feels about blizzards. They are great fun as everyone gets to stay home unexpectedly but not so great to drive in!
I, too, had no idea Arizona has monsoons. I thought they occurred only in places like India.
That's a good idea taking photos of the sky. I'd send you photos of our sky in Sacramento, but they would all look the same. In fact, they would like a big blue square. We get some clouds, but not very many. Not like the cumulus clouds in Minnesota.
Teri, it is awesome here....when the monsoon comes to town. The monsoon actually accounts for a major portion of our water each year. ;-)
Elizabeth, wait until September here. We get beautiful white puffy clouds with a blue, blue sky. It is awesome. I remember when I moved back here in 2000, how in awe I was. I didn't notice/couldn't see? them in Southern California. ;-)
Teri, you've showed me red water and now red clouds? LOL! Was the red from the time of day you took the shots?
Lisa, red is my color, you know? The red cloud shots were in the evening just as the monsoon was rolling in, so you see the sunset as well reflecting on the clouds. Cool, huh?
Those are some great cloud shots. We haven't had too many storms this year to get such great shots. I just posted a pic of a sunset i took the other nite. Need to get a slideshow like what you did!!!
Amy, thank you so much! I'll stop by to see your photos. ;-)