October 6, 2008
Summer for 2008 has ended; As has the monsoon period (sept. 30). Temp's are now into the comfortable, liveable ranges, although shorts and tee-shirts are being changed to jeans and shirts. The time has come for evening meals in the yard, the firepit, day trips with the top down. Also, limited (no?) progress has been made on the site upgrade, life has a way of reprioritizing plans for spare time.
July 6, 2008
I'm experimenting with a .php based web for realtime reporting. It may require a bit of a revision from this format, but has its advantages - real time (5 sec.) updates and ease of maintenance. New links to various great sites extolling the virtues of the Sonoran Desert and the AZ geology will be added.
July 5, 2008
Summer is truly upon us; hot sunny weather, the monsoon is with us also, as the humidity is now ranging from 20% - 45% (heat of day /cool of night). No rain to record as of yet, altho the T-Storms have been moving around us. A week or so ago, a random lightning strike in the Gila River Reservation lead to a 2000 Acre wild fire, primarily in the (dry) Gila River bed 15 or so miles north of here. Overall, it's cooler than this time last year, by 10-15F. (July 5, 2007, max temp was 121+F). No Haboobs yet, few dust-devils, but the thermals over the Sierra Estrella ranges are just perfect for glider flights.. Pool water in the high 80's, low 90's, and is certainly the way to "cool off" here.
May 1, 2008
April 28th was our first day to reach 100F. Summer is just around the corner, the 110F plus temperatrues are a less than a couple of months away. Spring has been typical for the desert. Warm to hot, with winds rangining from a gentle breeze to 30mph as the Alaskan lows try desperately to sweep down on us. No rain, but then, it's too early for the monsoon season and the thnderstorms that ride the winds. Dust devils on the bare desert indicate the temp is rising, but no Haboobs ( the big walls of wind-blown dust). Still a very pleasant time to be living here - the water in the pool is warming a degree or two each day, and by the end of May will be a coveted retreat in the early evenings.
April 1, 2008
Spring is well underway in the northern Sonoran Desert, with Temperatures in the high 70's to the high 80's during the day. It's only a matter of day's until we get to 90F, and probably only weeks until our first 100F-plus reading. The wild grasses in the reservation open spaces are already turning brown, and the wild flowers, which tenaciously bloom along side the roads are now on the down hill slide past prime showing. The wild horses of the Gila Reservation are still to the west, by the Estralla Ranges, living off spring growth, drinking their fill from the springs along the ranges. As these dry up their migration to the east will begin, and travellers on SR347 will have the treat of seeing wild horses frollick in the dwn and dusk. Ah, yes, life is preparing for the desert summer.
January 21, 2008
The desert winter is upon us. The lower Sonoran Desert has a rather nice winter. Although it's not unusual to get 1,2 or even 3 degrees of frost during January, the daytime temps more than compensate for it - high 50's is "cold", usually its high 60's, lower 70's, and cloudless skies are the norm; unless, of course, one of the cold Pacific storms decides to slip a little more south than usual.
November 30, 2007
Well, summer and the extreme heat is certainly gone. Now is the time of warm days (mid 70's, mid 20C's) and cooler evenings. Nice for Walks, trips, picnics and for spotting the 'SnowBirds', those of northern climes who've headed south to escape the frigid winters. Today is our first real storm for our 'winter' season. A tropical stream passing over Baja will quickly drop up to an inch, maybe 2 in localized squalls, and be gone by Saturday night. It's actually quite nice, almost soothing, to see the clouds, see- and walk - in the rain... It's a nice change from our monotonous clear skies and full sunshine and no wind usual weather.