Check this out for yesterday at 6:05 and 6:15 PM. First, part of the precursor FULL rainbow to the east of Catalina. (In most locales a rainbow to the east would mean the storm has passed.) The second shot was taken at the height of this magnificent storm. I thought I had seen it rain as hard as it could here, and with as low a visibility as possible last summer. But, no. This topped them all! Golder Ranch Road, only a few hundred yards north is gone, and I could hardly make out our horse, Jake, in his corral, only 50 yards or so away! At this moment, too, the wind raged. Everything was moving violently amid the occasional lightning strike. The wind probably reached 50 kts (60 mph) during one of two of the violent puffs that came through at that time. It was just incredible; unforgettable.
The rain? 1.01 inches of which most (about 0.9 inches) fell in the first 20 minutes! Lots of erosion apparent today in our modest gravel roads. We’ve now had more that 2 inches of rain in only the first five days since the summer rains started. Fantastic. Even today, after only a few days with rain, there were traces of green at the bottom of otherwise dead looking grasses. And, now some of the washes will start to run for awhile, too.
And, more days with strong storms here and there are ahead. How great is this after our crummy winter?
