More Weather

We had a mini--hurricane on Tuesday night. We've been having thunderstorms lately, which are not uncommon in the summer in the desert. It was actually a rather nice, though humid, day with plenty of sunshine. But, by evening, the wind had picked up, which usually is an indication that a thunderstorm is on its way. Sure enough, by 8:00 P.M. the lightning was sizzling through the air above our block, and the thunder felt like it might crack the windows, it slammed through with such intensity and power.

The rain started up, dropping Oreo-sized drops on my patio, while my co-worker a few blocks away got hail stones, she told me the next day. The rain quickly increased and soon washed down on our street, but the wind got crazy. It didn't back off, but got more wild and blew with such ferocity that, instead of running down the gutters, the water on the pavement was picked up and blew in sheets ahead of the cars. Our palm trees were being bent to the left, their fronds forced out straight like pennants on a sailboat in a gale.

It raged like this for about 20 minutes, flinging shingles and shopping bags and the occasional piece of patio furniture across the neighborhood. Seriously--the next morning, some friends from church posted a photo of one lady's plastic chairs lying in the bottom of the other lady's pool after they were blow over the wall that separates their backyards.

I arrived at my school, for the first official day of Back To School for the teachers, to find one of my favorite trees like this:

 

It was lying on its side, across the side yard of our school. This sidewalk is the one that many teachers use to go in the door nearest to where we can access our mailboxes.

 

You can see how shallow the roots are, because it is a desert tree. The roots of this type of tree spread out in wide, not deep, pattern, the better to take advantage of the least bit of moisture that may reach the soil in which it is growing.

 

Part of the problem was that the tree had been growing all summer, without any trimming, so its branches were filled by the narrow leaves, creating a lush shady canopy. That lush greenery got really heavy, and then we got the mini-hurricane.

This was such a lovely tree. It was as tall as the roof of the school. It's one of those resinous plants that gave off a lovely scent on rainy day. Sigh...someone will have to come with a chainsaw and cut it up to get it out of the way of the students who will come on Monday. I almost wish that the yard workers won't get to it before that first day of school, because I know the students would be thrilled to see this huge tree lying on its side along the sidewalk they use to go up to the playground. It isn't really blocking the path, but it is pretty impressive.

 

You can see the wet sidewalk and puddles in the rocks. It rained so much, starting Tuesday night and then all day Wednesday, that we here in Las Vegas went from drought conditions to normal rainfall amount for the year in just one day. I took the long way home on Wednesday so I could drive past the flood control channel and see it filled and roiling. I wasn't disappointed. Today, all the water has drained away down to Lake Mead, and all that is left of our exciting day of monsoon-like weather is the drifts of dirt and gravel where the swift water raced along the streets or pooled up all across intersections. Everything else is clean and damp and the air is fresh and clear. Crazy weather!