Winter in the desert
Dec. 6th, 2004 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienToday was one of those days when the clouds come down, to the tops of the mountains or even lower; my first glimpse of the western horizon this morning showed a peak with its lower slopes wreathed in them. Later on, I looked out of the window at work to see another fluffy grey-white mass sitting at valley level, apparently pretty much over my home, with the mountains looming darker grey behind. Late in the afternoon they all lifted away again, leaving a dusting of snow on the sunlit peaks.
If this rain keeps up, we might have a chance at wildflowers in the spring. We haven't had a really wet winter since the first one I spent here. That was the big El Nino winter of 1998, with a storm every few days from November to March, and a fair fraction of them bringing rain. Since then, it's been below-average rainfall nearly every season, with weak summer monsoons and warm dry winters. The forests burned last summer and the summer before and the one before that; at least this year the Catalinas mostly escaped. I've had the same umbrella for years -- and I've always regarded cheap folding umbrellas as semi-disposable -- and don't even carry it most of the time. But it rained most of the day Saturday and Sunday and today. I hope it continues.
If this rain keeps up, we might have a chance at wildflowers in the spring. We haven't had a really wet winter since the first one I spent here. That was the big El Nino winter of 1998, with a storm every few days from November to March, and a fair fraction of them bringing rain. Since then, it's been below-average rainfall nearly every season, with weak summer monsoons and warm dry winters. The forests burned last summer and the summer before and the one before that; at least this year the Catalinas mostly escaped. I've had the same umbrella for years -- and I've always regarded cheap folding umbrellas as semi-disposable -- and don't even carry it most of the time. But it rained most of the day Saturday and Sunday and today. I hope it continues.