We live in an arid land. Our beloved Sonoran Desert receives on average 10-12 inches of precipitation a year in a bi-annual pattern. The Tohono O’odham, the native people who have ancestral ties to this land going back several thousand years, characterize our rainy seasons as female and male. Our gentle, long lasting winter rains (when we get them) nurture seeds in preparation for the spring growing season. So it makes sense that they are referred to as female rains. The torrential, fast moving, and powerful storms that blow through during our summer monsoon season are called male rains. We’ll leave the reasoning for that up to you.
The entire Tucson area was walloped by one of these male rains yesterday. After several days of wistfully watching the mountains around us get rain, we finally received some, too. The blustering, lightning and thunder-heavy storm was over in less than an hour yet it packed a punch. Our rain gauge collected an inch and a half, others recorded over two inches.
The storm knocked out power to thousands, toppled trees, and flooded roads—thankfully our property came through relatively unscathed. Though we did have to cancel our dinner plans since our road became a river…
The desert is so beautiful! Sorry you missed out on dinner out, but looks like this show was worth it. I remember fondly the earthy “after the rain” smell. Thanks for sending us photos of our beloved city! Miss you all!
Oh, if only we could bottle that amazing smell! We’d send you some, Heidi. We were so happy to have the rain we didn’t mind missing out on dinner (though we were sorry to miss out on Adria and Joel’s company). And, considering the strength of the storm we were very lucky to not have any damage to our house. The monsoons make the hot weather bearable!
Hear you’ve been having some crazy hot weather back there. Hope you and the kiddos all find fun ways to stay cool!
Wow! Very impressive. We finally got a little rain here in Payson, but nothing like that.
Glad to hear you are getting a few drops – though obviously many more are needed up there. Here’s hoping the entire state gets drenched in the coming weeks!
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