a virtual home for Deer Canyon Preserve property owners
The first official Deer Canyon Folks Weather Report Mug. Buy it here!
Weather Report:
Sunny & Breezy
with a chance of Longhorns!
The second official Deer Canyon Folks Weather Report Mug. Buy it here!
Weather Report:
Partly Cloudy
with Imminent Sunsets!
We've been gone for more than a week, so I don't have any idea yet what the weather was. But I can tell you this: when we arrived home this afternoon there was 3/10 of an inch of rain in the gauge, and it's really coming down strongly and steadily now. Totals tomorrow.
Warm but not too hot: 76° at 3:25 pm. Sunny with just a few decorative clouds. A touch of breeze, and everything green!
By the way, I just went through my rainfall records. In July we received 3.68 inches of rain, and so far this month we’ve gotten 4.2 inches. This would explain the excellent greenness, and the scarlet morning glory vines springing up all over!
Also known as hail! A very intense storm started up a bit after 5 pm, with wind, copious quantities of hail in all several sizes, rain too, lightning all around.
That’s our front yard being rained and hailed upon! All that white stuff is hail on top of the gravel. You see why I'm calling it snow!
The temperature dropped to 49° (back up to 59° by 7 pm) and we ended up with piles of hail in a couple of inconvenient spots, which required the intervention of the clean-up crew, once the storm finally ebbed:
As a result of our brief visit to winter, or at least to early spring, the hummingbirds stopped fighting at the feeder as everyone claimed a berth and got down to the serious work of sipping:
There are six birds on the feeder in this photo, but one is invisible on the other side. Two more flew in right after I snapped, and the others didn't budge.
Oh, and Torrance County had a tornado watch until 7:30 pm, along with the severe thunderstorm watch (yeah, saw that one) and an ongoing flash flood watch. Our rain total was 1.4 inches, and that all came down in about an hour. Fun with weather!
After some morning fog, we have had a beautiful day: partly cloudy, in the 80s, afternoon breezes (well, maybe breezes+), another gorgeous sunset. Weather to brag about!
I think I mentioned recently that I’d noticed the jays becoming almost frantic about peanuts in the morning, and that there seem to be many more jays around. Yesterday I finally got it: while I’m sitting there sipping my tea and enjoying lush midsummer beauty, the jays are stocking up for winter. Now’s when, during the lush season and into fall. That, and there are babies swelling the ranks. One follows his mama and bawls at her while she grabs a peanut. Today I saw one of the towhees feeding his/her peanut to another towhee, too. The hummingbirds also are no longer allowing any aggressive rufous hummers to claim the feeders. The law of survival first (fatten up while you can, store what you can for later) is on display this month.
Simply a stunning evening here at Deer Canyon, with an excellent sunset, a waxing moon gracing the sky, and soft southerly breezes.
My main reason for posting, however, is to make sure you notice that we have posted Jerry Melaragno's first wildflower essay from 2006 for your enjoyment, and Jerry will be giving us another essay every month. Yippee!
Finally! This evening’s sunset was a stunner, one of those that changes character every few minutes. The northwestern sky was striated with clouds, many layers for the sun’s rays to come through. Dark clouds with bands of coral below, which changed to gold, then fiery orange, then carmine. At the same time, some tops of clouds in the northeast were bright coral-pink. A good show, one we’ve been missing, as the cloud cover has generally been too thick.
After I turned away from the sunset I saw two coyotes maybe 30 feet from our front porch. They regarded me for a few moments then leisurely moved off through the trees.
A thunderstorm came through this afternoon and dropped another tenth of an inch of rain in just about an hour. Overnight Thursday to Friday morning we also had very steady rains and received almost one-half inch of rain. Which is why we're looking rather green and lush this summer—the rains keep coming!
For us, at least: 1.2 inches of rain in a series of thunderstorms that began noisily at 1:30 am and continued until mid-morning. And it looks like all of Deer Canyon received significant amounts of rain from this storm. The day continued cloudy and cool, and now at 7 pm we have the sun peeking through clouds in the west, and thunderstorms approaching from the south. Good times!
So in honor of the HOA weekend being over, we'll probably have a fantastic sunset tonight.
You know, sometimes I don't post because I don't really have anything to write. It's summer. It gets hot during the day, and then frequently the skies cloud up and thunderstorms pass through in the evening. Even when there are no storms, the evening cools down, often with breezes, like last night. Early mornings are very sweet and still, and smell like "mountain mornings". (Since they are!) Birds come, birds go; hummingbirds fight over what is actually an endless supply of sugar water, but they don't understand that. Coyotes howl in the evening. My donkey brays for supper.
When I don't post, you'd be safe to assume all or most of those things happened!
UPDATE: I should mention though that the south end of Phase II got big rain Thursday afternoon, a classic gully-washer. And here in Phase I? The merest sprinkle.
© 2011 Alan & Kathleen Clute
