More unexpected weather

[ellarien]

At 2pm on Saturday, it started raining, big fat drops splatting down on sidewalks. Half an hour later, as I was setting out across the campus en route to the shuttle to Phoenix, it was raining again, or still. There's a particular smell that summer rain -- or even sprinkler-water on dust -- brings out; sharp, almost sour, not particularly pleasant except by association. This rain, though, on the spring blossom, brought out a whole array of scent overlaid on that, spicy and sweet as nutmeg custard. The showers kept coming all afternoon and into the night, and it's just started up again as I type this. Rain is never unwelcome, here in the desert, but there are times of year when it can reasonably be hoped for, and late April isn't one of them. A week ago, I would have said we were already on the edge of the 'dry summer' season, the long arid ramp-up to the hundred-degree temperatures of June, when the only rain in prospect is the 'monsoon' that usually starts around the 4th of July holiday.