Monsoons are back

After missing downtown Tucson again and again, the monsoon finally gave us two direct hits on Friday and Saturday. Wow! I'd forgotten how strong these storms can be. It was warm in the afternoon and then around 4 it started getting breezy and overcast. By 5 it was raining. By 6, we were a little worried the roof might blow off.

We were out driving to the store, but turned around and came home when the streets started to get a little too deep and the "booooodeeeebooop!" came on the radio and told us there were tornado watches and 60-70 mph winds.

These are the pictures of the yard just after we got back.

The water got deeper than this and we had some hail, but you can already see the rain lapping against the steps. It filled the yard and at one stage it was flowing past in little waves.

First step under water

What became of Amy's rock piles? Poor thing, we will have to survey the damage in the daylight. All is well now. The rain has stopped, we have our power back, and it is a gorgeous 63 degrees outside. Perfect crisp air for sleeping.

This is a picture from Friday's storms. I was practicing with my new camera after the rain had mostly stopped. This is a 4 second exposure looking into the storm cloud. Really, it was around 9 pm and totally dark. The purple light behind the clouds that looks like sunshine is lightning. It's kind of cool to see how well lit the street was. Next time, I'll try not to get powerlines smack in the middle of the shot. I couldn't even see them when I set up the tripod on the sidewalk, but they sure show up well with the lightning.

Anyway, happy monsoon! Here's hoping for another 2 inches tomorrow!