We've had more rain days. Rain is always very exciting for you're truely the desert rat. The river running through Phoenix, the Rio Salado or Salt River, is usually dry. In fact it was dry my whole life till my senior year of high school there was water in it for the first time in my life. The reason for this is that we have damns upriver so we have water in our canals all year. My Mom comes from Brisbane which has a winding river like a snake through it. When she met my Dad, she expressed concern about missing the Brisbane River. Well, Dad pulled out a map and said, "We have a river in Phoenix. Here it is right here, the Salt River." What he didn't say is that it is usually dry without a drop of water in it! So, Rain is big in Phoenix. They released water into the Salt River today because of all the rain we've received in the Salt and Verde river flood plains in the past 2 days. This picture was taken just before it really started raining hard. It is clouds hovering around Squaw Peak, oops, I mean Piestewa Peak. This is the view from our front window.
This is the view of Camelback Mountain and the Praying Monk Formation after a rain. I took this picture the next street over. It is a view I enjoy when leaving home and coming home each day.
I have a rain gauge in the backyard. As you can see we got 2 " in the past 24 hours. It rained all day Sunday and all last night. This means that we've gotten 3.2" so far in January of 08 at our house in Phoenix. That is almost half of our average yearly rainfall of 7". I hate that global warming! We have Lake Madison at school which is attracting ducks and water birds (I've seen Killdeer there twice in the past 2 months). I had to look this bird up because I'd never seen it before. It is very distinctive with 2 double black and white breast stripes. I actually took a picture of it one day, but didn't think to download it, because I didn't know I would be discussing it. Well, anyway, the the everyday miracles of rain in the desert!
We've had more rain days. Rain is always very exciting for you're truely the desert rat. The river running through Phoenix, the Rio Salado or Salt River, is usually dry. In fact it was dry my whole life till my senior year of high school there was water in it for the first time in my life. The reason for this is that we have damns upriver so we have water in our canals all year. My Mom comes from Brisbane which has a winding river like a snake through it. When she met my Dad, she expressed concern about missing the Brisbane River. Well, Dad pulled out a map and said, "We have a river in Phoenix. Here it is right here, the Salt River." What he didn't say is that it is usually dry without a drop of water in it! So, Rain is big in Phoenix. They released water into the Salt River today because of all the rain we've received in the Salt and Verde river flood plains in the past 2 days. This picture was taken just before it really started raining hard. It is clouds hovering around Squaw Peak, oops, I mean Piestewa Peak. This is the view from our front window.
This is the view of Camelback Mountain and the Praying Monk Formation after a rain. I took this picture the next street over. It is a view I enjoy when leaving home and coming home each day.
I have a rain gauge in the backyard. As you can see we got 2 " in the past 24 hours. It rained all day Sunday and all last night. This means that we've gotten 3.2" so far in January of 08 at our house in Phoenix. That is almost half of our average yearly rainfall of 7". I hate that global warming! We have Lake Madison at school which is attracting ducks and water birds (I've seen Killdeer there twice in the past 2 months). I had to look this bird up because I'd never seen it before. It is very distinctive with 2 double black and white breast stripes. I actually took a picture of it one day, but didn't think to download it, because I didn't know I would be discussing it. Well, anyway, the the everyday miracles of rain in the desert!
1 comment:
The first time I saw a Kildeer was near Walmart in Cabot. I had to look it up too because I had never seen one. They are really cool birds. There are a couple that live right by the ball fields at my school. I see them almost every day. Love your pictures.
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