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August 8, 2005
Arizona Monsoons
If you have ever wondered what an Arizona monsoon cloud looks like, take a good look at the picture below.
It's all pretty cool when one has monsoon weather clouds like the 30,000 foot behemoth you see in the picture below... eh?
Arizona Monsoon Cloud
Where else can one see clouds like this? Perhaps in the tropics, or south of the equator perhaps. But they are pretty cool. And with coming from Canada I never saw clouds like this my entire life.
But don't let their beauty deceive you. They are also very deadly since they bring the monsoon rains to Arizona as well.
Sometimes vacationers go hiking in the desert areas of the state with clear, cloudless skies everywhere one looks up.
But somewhere else, even hundreds of miles away, one - or a group of these humongous clouds looms on the horizon and is pouring out it's contents onto the dry desert floor and desert washes.
And where does this rain go when it is unable to soak into the parched ground? Horizontal. Fast.
And if one of the unlucky tourists from Germany happens to be hiking with the group in a wash that is connected downhill to one of these torrential downpours, well, you can guess what happens next.
Many a time I've read in the local papers that people were swept away in washes in the northern part of Arizona after encountering a 'wall' of water 40 feet high speeding down a (before) dry wash.
So, beautiful, yes. But also killers, at times.
Ain't nature wonderful how it doesn't let us forget that WE are the puny visitors on this huge and powerful rotating ball?
Andre
Posted by Andre Best at August 8, 2005 6:23 AM
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