Brief Yet Intense Storm

Morning moon, just after harvest

A little before midnight Becca came into our bedroom to wake me with the message that a huge storm was imminent.  She heard the thunder and saw the lightning, and she wanted me to get up to sit with her.  Dr. K decided to get up, too.  Then the thunderstorm was upon us, raging with a surprising fury.  Nearby lightning strikes (I was certain our neighbor's tall tree had been hit) were followed instantaneously by explosions of thunder.  The whole downpour lasted a bit over forty minutes, but the storm was a deluge.  When Becca and I left for our hike early this morning we found neighborhood streets covered in debris:  rocks, mud and dirt that had been swept into the roadways from torrents of rainwater.  It was evident that Tortugas Mountain had been hard hit, too; rivers of water coursing down the mountainside had deeply gouged many areas in the desert.  We had a good trek, though, despite having to deal with high humidity and clouds of swarming bugs.

In the shadow of Tortugas

Becca sees somebody far behind us

Heavy rain has turned the single-track into a deep gully

Some damage caused by this morning's downpour

Alternate single-track started by some mountain bikers

Really long shot of a Red-tailed Hawk

Zooming in on the raptor

Not a bad image from several football fields away

Becca in a deep, but narrow arroyo

Rain ran heavily through here

The nail imprints give it away:  large dog rather than cougar

After the rain

Road around the mountain is completely smooth