In New Mexico and Arizona we are waiting anxiously for some rain. Arizona’s July 5th wall of dust known as a haboob seems to have marked the beginning of the Monsoon. These walls of dust moving into the Phoenix area are not new, I remember them nearly every year when I was growing up. This year it was a particularly large one.
The weekend outlook from the NOAA shows the seasonal shift in winds and moisture from the south.
A few nights ago I found scorpion number 4. After vacuuming him up I quickly found scorpion number 5. I’ve seen 5 more scorpions in the last month than I have seen in my life, and I’ve lived in Arizona and New Mexico all my life.
I hope this is just a natural reaction to the rain we have had. I put down some glue traps a few days ago and so far no hits. I also haven’t seen any bugs, except for a few crickets, in a few days.
This morning my backyard looked liked it belonged in a swampland instead of a desert mesa. The rain has been insane and it’s been pretty much like this every night, I believe the ground is pretty much saturated. Yesterday one of my neighbors backyard was out in the street, there was so much mud that the city had to come out and dig it out.
This is precisely why none of my outdoor projects are getting done. As soon as the rain lets up I’m going to have a mess of weeds to clean up.
Remember that sprinkler project I took a while back, back in March as a matter of fact. I had planned to only take a few weeks to complete it. Here it is 4 months later and it’s still not done.
I did make some progress. I have the valve box installed, vaves installed and one of the two lines hooked up. All I need to do is install the 2nd line and leak test and I can burry everything.
OK, so I admit that general laziness has slowed the project. I’m also going to blame the weather. We’ve had so much rain that the 24 inch trench has filled up with water to the top. There hasn’t been that much time in between rains to let the ground dry up, and I don’t want be playing in the mud. Depending on how the weather cooperates I plan to make this a priority again.
After a entire winter of hardly any rain and no snow. We are getting a last minute reprieve with a major winter storm that has come through the state.
I’m suppose to drive up to Durango today, hopefully those plans are not ruined since the roads leading up to there are right in the middle of the storm.
“They” say there will about 30% more moisture than usual this summer. Most people seem to be complaining about the lack of sun, I however am quite content with this one year of rain considering we’ve been in a drought for about 5 years.
Snow capped Sandia Mountians at sunset
The forecast calls for more rain this week. 2004 was one of the top ten wettest years since they started making records of such things. Just based on the first 2 months, 2005 could become the wettest!
Seen here, the snowy Sandia Mountains at sunset.
Generally New Mexico gets about 8 inches of rain a year. This last storm brought 2.5 to 3.5 inches depending on where you are. Carlsbad got nearly 6.
This is why I suggest a national pipeline. Not to pump oil but to pump water. There would be a network of big pipes located throughout the country. Through these pipes we could pump water from where ever there are rivers and lakes and people living near by. If these waterways flood then we could pump the water to where it’s needed. For example the flooded Pecos river in Carlsbad could have had it’s water pumped to Elephant Butte lake where it’s extremely low. If it floods in the mississippi river valley they and there’s a drought in the southwest the excess water could be pumped where it’s needed.
It’s been done with the CAP (Central Arizona Project) where they bring water from the Colorado River to the Phoenix area.
