We got a downpour for about 30 minutes at 3:00 p.m. this afternoon. Several staff members stood outside under the portal at the office to watch the rain. Thunder was on a constant roll. Lightning struck close by while the rain poured and rivers ran through the parking lot. One staff member noted, “I’ll get home tonight and the weather will report 7/100 inch of rain.” I told her it would be at least a 1/10 of an inch. When I got home, our rain gauge read 0.11 inches of rain.
As I was leaving the office after the rain let up, several rescue vehicles raced down Alameda Blvd with their lights on and sirens blaring. They pulled up to the flood control channel, which you can see here: https://wp.me/p1yQyy-bGb. Water was roaring down the channel when I drove over it on my way home. I heard the news helicopter flying around above us, so I looked up the news channel and someone had been washed away by the current in town, and a body was pulled from the water where the flood control channel flows into the river. I looked up the rainfall for Albuquerque today. The report showed 0.39 inches of rain for the zip code where the person was swept away by the runoff in the channel. What might seem like little rain produces a lot of deadly runoff in our high desert.
Silver, Loki and Glenda waiting for me to give them cheese.
NE view of the Rio Grande on Wednesday evening. NE view of the Rio Grande this morning.
SE view of the Rio Grande on Wednesday evening. SE view of the Rio Grande this morning.
A beaver up and out at dawn.
Bunning through the fence.
Shots of the Bunny
pTerodactyl at dawn.
Spunk is a Cat Tree hugger.
We got a really violent thunderstorm this afternoon. The wind was strong, driving the rain sideways, and the visibility was low. The weather station recorded the event as producing 0.95 inches of rain. The wind-driven rain got almost everything on the deck wet.
The clouds right after the thunderstorm. Views looking east and west.
The clouds at 7:30 pm. Views looking east and west.
8:11 pm (official sunset). Views looking east and west.
Mermaid was happy after we finally got a decent rain last night.
We had a thunderstorm that started yesterday afternoon and rained late into the night producing 0.54 inches (1.4 cm) of rain. A happy Mermaid put on several blooms this morning.
Hi there! You look like you live in a world that’s upside down Everything is turned on its head Nothing is the right way up It must be dizzying Living a topsy-turvy existence Where you can’t tell reality from illusion And so many others are delusional about their senses and beings
I went out to photograph the pending storm this afternoon. Laurie asked if I was doing a time lapse video. I told her I needed to go in and get my tripod. On the way in to get my tripod, Laurie asked if I thought it was too early to take the clothes off the line. I said you probably should take them in earlier than later. My clothes got caught in a downpour last weekend and I had to bring them inside and rehang them in the house. Laurie headed for the clothes line, a went in and grabbed my tripod. I opened the door to the deck and “Boom!” the rain started coming down hard. Laurie had hung her clothes on hangers on the clothes line, so she was able to get the clothes gathered and inside before she got too wet. Very smart of her. The rain was intense for about an hour, which included hail every now and then.
Here’s a short video of the rain with a little hail.
Spunk decided to go inside and show the kittens how to sing with his tail while it rained. I put a translation of what he is singing on the ticker tape along the bottom of the screen in the video.
Thunderstorm with rain that never reaches the ground.
What we call Spider Lilies finally decided to bloom after getting watered on Thursday
I missed the Strawberry Moon on Thursday night because of clouds and trees. Last night we were still at Laurie’s parents’ house a little after 10 pm when the post Strawberry Strawberry Moon rose.
Our Majordomo texted me last night that there would be water to irrigate in the morning. I went out at dawn, but there was not much water in the irrigation ditch. There was a lot of sticks and cotton floating on top of the water. Therefore, I didn’t want to open my gate before the water was flowing over the main gate because a lot of the debris would clog up my culverts and ditches. I texted the Majordomo and asked when the water would be let in, and told him I’d be back home around 11:00 am to let in the water if it had come up by then.
I went to work, and we moved the remaining file cabinets, shelf units, tables and cabinets out of the downtown office. We put some of it in the storage room on the south end of the building, and loaded the rest of it into 4 pickup trucks and delivered shelves to a church in northeast Albuquerque, and then I delivered file cabinets and desks to our pharmacy in Corrales on my way home. At 10:30 am the Majordomo texted me that the water was up. I thought I would make it to Corrales by 11:00 am, but then an employee at the market asked if we had more desks. We did, so he got his truck and we loaded it with 3 file cabinets and two desks. I wasn’t going to make it home by 11:00 am, so I called Laurie and had her open out gate and get the water started.
Speaking of cotton, not only does it cling to plants and other things, it clogs up our swamp cooler. The above photos are the swamp cooler all clogged up again after I had cleaned it on Monday afternoon. I have to pull out the pads and brush the cotton off of them, and then I have to use a hose to spay the cotton out of the vents in the panels that hold the pads.
Around 1:00 pm, storm clouds were building up. It started raining around 3:00 pm.
This native bee was working the Shasta Daisies. The insects really love the Shasta Daisies while they are in bloom.
The rain stopped around 4:30 pm. I went out to shut down the irrigation gate at 5:00 pm and the storm clouds were breaking up.
A Pearl Crescent butterfly was also enjoying the Shasta Daisies this afternoon.
A yellow lily started blooming this afternoon.
While I was checking the progress of the irrigation water, I noticed we had one yellow Bing Cherry on our cherry tree. That’s the biggest harvest I’ve had in years. I think we had four or five cherries in 2018. The cherry was delicious.
Pre-sunset at around 8:00 pm looking southeast. Resa’s tree lighted on the left, Dale’s Peach tree in front (it has peaches), and Rebecca’s Black Bamboo patch with yellow tops in the middle right background.
Closer to sunset around 8:15 pm east/southeast. From left to right: Tiffany’s tree, Gabriela’s tree, Gigi’s tree, Teagan’s trees behind Gigi’s tree, and Susan’s tree.