Finally, after several days of overcast and rainy weather, we have a cloudless Arizona sky. While we were walking the dogs this morning, I took this photo of the neighbor’s flagpole with the third quarter moon above.
The forecast is for continued sunshine and cooler temperatures with highs typically mid-sixties and lows in the low forties. You can see from the flag that the winds are light and variable. Click on the image to enlarge.
The so-called “Pineapple Express,” southern segment, is thrusting a mass of saturated air from the south Pacific via the sea of Cortez right up through the state of Arizona. We’re getting up to an inch from this storm which has been with us since early last eventing. It is forecast to remain tomorrow with a chance of more showers and thunderstorms throughout the weekend.
The green and yellow blob moving through the state in a northbound flow, has us in its direct path. Not to worry, though, we’re high and dry on our little casita in the desert. Monday is forecast to be our usual mild winter conditions of sunny and not-too-cool. The rest of Thanksgiving week is forecast the same.
This is a view of the setting moon that I took yesterday morning from the driveway. I liked the way the moon floats among the sky textures of cloud formations and a contrail remnant. Click on the image to enlarge.
Why haven’t we posted anything for a week? The answer is complex, but suffice it to say that our plate has been rather full of good busy things and a bad one or two.
This was the view right around sundown last evening. About an hour later, the wind came up, we heard thunder and saw lightning flashes. We got a nice steady shower for about fifteen minutes – just enough to soak into the desert soil. Click on the image to enlarge.
Here’s a really COOL (pun intended) cartoon from Gary Varvel that illustrates the nonsense peddled by “climate change Greenbats.”
Found in The Patriot Post Tuesday Humor Email.
We saw this colorful dragonfly perched on an auto antenna as we were parking. It stayed there long enough for me to get this close up photo of it before flying away. We saw a red dragonfly near the hospital courtyard koi pond in July and another one out in California in October of 2007. Click on the image to enlarge.
The Hassayampa River that flows through town is an underground river (normally), but today as we drove down to the Valley and back, Damsel captured several images of water flowing above the river bed. There was rain in the mountains where the Hassayampa originates and a lot of water was going through today.
The first image in the slideshow above is the river flowing under the pedestrian bridge that used to be US 60 before the new bridge and bypass were built. The second image is of the BNSF railroad bridge over the river near the point where the river departs company with US 60 as it flows toward the confluence with the Gila River. Damsel took the third image just as we had our last glimpse of the river from the highway. The fourth and fifth images were taken as we were coming back into town with the camera pointed northeast toward the headwaters. Click on the slideshow to advance to the next frame (of five total).