And so I'm home again, trying to readjust to a "new" place, a "different" computer, and a cat who's just a bit bewildered by the whirlwind of changes he's suffered. Right now, he's outdoors, inspecting the yard to see if that battle-scarred interloper cat has moved further into His Turf during his absence.
The flight from Anchorage to Phoenix was lovely and smooth -- until we reached the Utah border with Arizona, at which time things got just a bit bumpy. Proof positive that it was a monsoon storm we were about to move through on our landing approach. Time: five-ish in the afternoon.
Phoenix was its usual hot & sunny self but ... before we even hit the city limits, the shuttle bus was moving along under a dark cloud, all we could see ahead. Out the side window to the west was a heavy-duty storm probably between Lake Pleasant and Wickenburg. The clouds opened up briefly to let the evening sun through. Very unusual; as a rule the storms don't pour out of the mountains until much later in the day.
Clouds to the north didn't look as angry, just drizzly. And you never can tell from a distance whether that moisture using up the bottom is hitting the earth or merely virga, a curtain of raindrops that evaporates well before ground level. Virga is one of those frustrating weather phenomena which teases residents of dry country. Turned out that this was the tag end of a
very stormy day in Prescott. Fortunately, I had unplugged all my pet electronics before heading to the North Country, as the transformer immediately up the hill suffered a direct hit from the lightening. So all's well once I spend time at the supermarket and replace the battery charger left behind.
Phoenix was its usual hot & sunny self but ... before we even hit the city limits, the shuttle bus was moving along under a dark cloud, all we could see ahead. Out the side window to the west was a heavy-duty storm probably between Lake Pleasant and Wickenburg. The clouds opened up briefly to let the evening sun through. Very unusual; as a rule the storms don't pour out of the mountains until much later in the day.
Clouds to the north didn't look as angry, just drizzly. And you never can tell from a distance whether that moisture using up the bottom is hitting the earth or merely virga, a curtain of raindrops that evaporates well before ground level. Virga is one of those frustrating weather phenomena which teases residents of dry country. Turned out that this was the tag end of a very stormy day in Prescott. Fortunately, I had unplugged all my pet electronics before heading to the North Country, as the transformer immediately up the hill suffered a direct hit from the lightening. So all's well once I spend time at the supermarket and replace the battery charger left behind.
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10 comments:
Glad you thought ahead to unplug the electronics.
My friends house took a direct hit yesterday and looks like it has caused over $5,000 in damages so far.
Welcome home, GJ! Thanks for the great AK posts.
Wow, sorry to hear about Tombo's friend's house.
Such is the monsoon.
Glad you're safe!
~Anon in AV.
Glad to see you're back and blogging in familiar country again. Beautiful posts from Alaska, as was expected.
Yes, Welcome Home, Granny J. I would say we've missed you but your posts from up there kept us in touch.
tombo -- I couldn't have enjoyed myself away from home if I hadn't unplugged! Too bad about your friends.
anon av -- More AK posts to come, when the dotter puts my thousand photos on a thumb drive & sends it to me!
tony -- a lot more posts from AK will follow ... I've got a slew of material.
cat-A -- glad to be home, now that the monsoon rains are superimposed over the hot weather.
Loved these storm photos. They are proof that "prettiness" is over-rated, and fearsomeness in Nature is under-rated.
the clouds look pretty gloomy.
boonie -- You're so right about the fearsomeness of Nature; it's an aspect too often forgotten even by citified tree-huggers. Bloody, long-in-tooth, all that!
cloudy -- actually, it's a welcome gloom in Arizona. Once the clouds arise midday, the temp cools off. We almost always have a period of sunshine every day. Not like the midwest!
bad weather sure makes for some dramatic photos!
crafty -- never, never refer to our summer rains as bad weather!!! We welcome as much water as we can get (and store behind dams), tho apparently last night's downpour played havoc with the Havasupai village down in that canyon which normally is classed as a virtual Eden.
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