Then the Rains Came

Welp - the rain is here.  We set out for the morning ride, it was sprinkling but we thought no big deal, it never really rains until the afternoon.  No - wrong.  The thunder started, the rain started and we were drenched.  I haven't been that wet on a bike in a very long time.

This was radar this morning.

Many of the roads in Tucson are nap of the earth.  If there is a wash or a low spot, the road follows the terrain.  Many roads do not have storm sewers so the water can get deep fast.  When it rains, one should not drive through the raging waters. 

And yet they do.  Every year, like clockwork they have to be rescued.

This was last night, after another dry day.  Nice clouds.

With the exception of the patio roof, we don't have gutters.  We have a flat roof with scuppers that dump water on the ground. It's not actually flat, it's pitched to get the water off.  Anyway, the water feeds into canales which direct the flow away from the house and out into the yard.  This short palm tree serves as a water break and disperses the rain.

Water on the street, backing up into the driveway.  The driveway slopes uphill from the road, so that's a fair amount of rain.

I took this standing on the patio holding my camera over my head because it was raining and my camera did not want to get wet.  This is the wash next to the house.  The brown blob mid photo is some sort of dead plant, you can see water behind it, and an eddy in front of it.  At that point it was pretty dark, so there you go.

Our gutter, doing its job.  The water runs into the wash and will eventually hit the aquifer.  Tucson still has dependence on underground water.

So that was today's excitement.  Our shoes are soaked and are sitting with a fan pointing at them.  It's still raining, so there can not be any walking out or anything.  Woe, woe is me.  It's good for the parched cactus, so one can not complain overmuch.