Tut, Tut, Looks Like Rain

Living in the southwestern desert, I am well accustomed to the scorching heat and dry air. In fact, when you move into the state of Arizona, you are given a list of catch phrases that you use whenever someone mentions the hot summers that we have. At the top of this list is the famous line, "but it's a dry heat." My oven is a dry heat too but I don't go around sticking my head in it. Anyway, the one part of this climate that I am still not used to is the rain. Before we moved here, I of course did some research on the environment and found that the Phoenix area only receives approximately 10 inches of rain per year. No where in the documentation did it say that we would receive these 10 inches in 10 storms. When it finally does decide to storm in Arizona, it really lets loose. The locals call it the monsoon season. Each evening during the late summer months, the sky will be sunny and blue during the day but in the evening it will cloud up and Mother Nature will put on quite a light show with the lightning and thunder that accompanies the downpours. The strangest part about the phenomenon is that only parts of the valley will actually experience the storm. The remainder would never even know there was bad weather if they didn't watch the news. Well tonight was our turn. All evening and going into the night, we were kept awake by flickering lights, bright flashes of lightning and loud claps of thunder. In between all of this, rain poured down around our house. It was obviously a good night to be inside wrapped up in a blanket with the air conditioning turned on to watch a little television.