Listen! The Wind!

Several weeks ago I wrote the first two paragraphs of this blog but never published it for some reason I don't remember now.  School was not out yet and apparently we had a big windstorm going on.  I wrote:  "The wind is blowing outside my classroom window.  It's a sound we don't usually get here in Arizona. There were warnings last night, though.  And a memo to staff:  "High wind advisory today.  Please notify all of your students to be careful of falling branches and debris.  Thanks!"

"Listen!  The wind!  The soft roar outside my room takes me thousands of miles from here to a long lake in northwestern Maine:  Mooselookmeguntic, where my sister and her in-laws have a cabin right on the lake.  I've heard the wind there many a morning.  Some of my happiest memories are of time in that cabin, listening to the wind, drinking in the sunset, walking the road to the bridge, crossing the iced-over water to Toothaker Island."

When I was at the cabin last weekend, it was somewhat windy off and on, especially Friday evening, just after we arrived.  Sunset was just beginning and I took a few nice pictures (see previous entry).  I went inside to unpack and was surprised, when I looked outside a few minutes later.  The beautiful sunset was gone, the mountains across the lake obliterated.  There was a loud roar coming through the windows and rain was pouring from the sky!  Just that fast!

I went outside to grab a few pictures, but the wind was so strong and the rain driving so hard that I could only get two before I had to run for cover.    Now here's the strange part:  this rain and fog lasted only about 10 minutes.  Then, just as quickly as it came, the wind and rain died down, the fog lifted, the mountain returned to view, the sun came out and continued to set.  Except for the freshly-washed look, you would never know it had rained.

Fire and Dust

Wednesday evening, I was sitting in my living room working on my laptop when I looked out the window and saw that the sky was on fire (this amazing sunset).  I grabbed my camera and went outside to capture the loveliness.  It was beastly hot (over 100 degrees, I'm sure) even though it was already 7:45 in the evening.  I decided to go for a quick walk to the field on the other side of the houses to get a better view of the sky.

The further I went on my walk, the more beautiful the sky became.

When I got to the end of the apartments, however, and looked across the street to the golf course there (to the east), the sky looked quite different--angry, in fact.  And dirty.  I quickly realized that I was about to experience my first haboob in person.  Never mind that a year ago I had never even heard of such a thing.  Now, I was going to be smack dab in the middle of one!

That wall of dirt was literally rolling down the road, through the golf course and coming straight for me!

I looked back to my right (to the west) and saw the beautiful sunset still going on, although it was fading somewhat as the dust began rolling in.

Looking back to my left, I saw that the haboob was approaching the mountain that is on the far side of the golf course.

I was fascinated by how fast this thing was moving, and how clearly I could see it.

Within minutes it was engulfing the mountain. . .

. . . and obliterating it!

 At its peak, I could barely see the mountain.










Meanwhile, the dust had also taken out the sunset.  By this time, I was back where I'd started, a mere 10 minutes earlier (I didn't want to disappear myself into the dust.  As it was, I had inhaled a fair amount of it.).  I can honestly say, I have never seen anything like this...but it will probably not be the last time.

Curious Conincidence

It was rather cool in my bedroom this morning when I woke up:  50 degrees on the "out" side of the window and 70 degrees on the "in" side of it.  My cats' noses were literally cold to the touch!  I actually had to get out a blanket to take the chill off while I watched CBS This Morning's tribute to Andy Rooney, who passed away Friday night.

As usual, I was multi-tasking while watching TV later and it occurred to me to check the weather where the rest of my family was this morning.  What I discovered was rather surprising.  Even though we are scattered to four corners of the continent, almost literally, we were mostly all within 9 degrees of each other, and all in the 50s!  My parents in Maine were at 53.1; my nephew just outside of Boston was at 53.4; my sister, niece, and brother-in-law in Charlotte, NC were at 58; my other niece in Loma Linda, CA was the coldest at 50; and I was the warmest at 59.

My nephew in TN, however, broke the 50s barrier, coming in at 64.  My other sister, along with her husband and in-laws, is in Florence, Italy today.  And guess what?  The temperature there was 59!!!  I thought that was such a curious coincidence.  I can't imagine that there will be too many times when we'll all be at roughly the same temperature at the same time.

Red Sky at Morning

"Red sky at night, sailor's delight.  Red sky at morning, sailor's warning."

Living in a hot dry state like I now do certainly brings its share of weather adventures.  In the year plus that I've lived here, I've experienced a "freak" hail storm that literally poured down tennis ball-sized hail stones, national-news-making dust storms, rapid and dramatic temperature drops, and multiple rainbows in the midst of sun showers.

This morning, when I opened my blinds, the sky was red.  So red I had to take a picture.  Then I listened to the news and weather.  Everything was about the powerful wind and dust storm that was going to take up much of the day--from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m.  

Even now, they are talking about thunderstorms and rain.  I've not seen or heard the rain/t-storms, but I did see the dust and felt the wind.  This is so foreign to me!  And interesting.

The pictures show this morning at about 6 a.m. and this evening at about 5:30 p.m.  Big difference!

Relative humidity

It's a strange place I live in when 95 degrees in the shade seems like "cool" weather, comfortable enough to do vigorous garden work!  Of course it's all relative.  Because the humidity is also incredibly low, I barely broke a sweat this morning as I scrubbed the algae off my little patio fountain--after chasing away the salamanders that like to hide underneath.

Months of 95+ weather here (in Phoenix), would be disastrous in New England.  The 30+ days we've had of 110 degrees and as high as 117 degrees would be impossible to bear there.  But here, we have soldiered on through the over-the-top heat.  My gardens have suffered.  I threw away several withered up plants today that succumbed.  I will start over again in a few weeks when the temperatures are down to stay for awhile.

Ice Storm!

Weather was terrible today. I got a call at 5:15 this morning from our 1/2nd grade teacher saying that trees had gone down in her yard (one fell on the house and took out her electricity). Another teacher called later to say he'd been on the road for awhile and had not moved more than a foot. He didn't come to school either. These two live north of us where it was more icy than the "just" rain we were having.

My parents, on the other hand, started losing power at 11 last night and didn't get it back until 1 this afternoon. Luckily, they have a fireplace and camp stoves and lanterns to see them through. My sister in central MA lost electricity and still doesn't have it. One of her colleagues had a tree go down on her house. No one got hurt, but it's going to be a mess to clean up.

On the other hand, even though it is destructive, the ice is quite beautiful. The pictures here were taken in my parents' back, front, and back yard. Rather magical looking wouldn't you say?

360 Degrees

The weather has been wild lately. Not that that's unusual in New England. They say if you don't like the weather here, wait a few minutes and it'll change. That was literally true on Sunday. I went out to the grocery store and while I was inside, all kinds of things were happening outside. Wind, snow, heat (relatively speaking)...and I wasn't inside all that long.

When I went out to my car, I was struck by the sky. Every direction I look had a different sky, a different mood. One way was bright and sunny, another was dark and angry looking. Oh, so interesting, this New England weather!

Photos: The 360...

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

It's minus 1 degrees outside my window right now. Wind chill is, I'm sure, far lower. It was so cold in our building today after two weeks with the heat at a minimum. It took all day to warm up. I came home bone-chilled, feeling like the picture at left (one of the pictures on my computer wallpaper). Brrrrrrrrrrrr!

Typical New England, though, it is supposed to be in the 50s over the weekend and into Monday. There's a saying here: "Don't like the weather? Wait a day." It's true....fortunately =)

Wild Winds at Old West

This afternoon I participated in an education rally held at one of Boston' s venerable old churches. I didn't know that's where I was headed when I got in my car this afternoon. I had an address, and a rough idea of location, but no one told me I was going to end up at the Old West Methodist Church. Instead, I wandered up and down the street until I finally parked and walked so I could get a closer look at the buildings and street addresses.

If you hadn't heard, Boston was supposed to be in the middle of a Nor'easter today. Luckily, it hadn't reached peak conditions at this time, but it was windy and rainy, and the longer I walked, the wilder my appearance became. My umbrella turned inside out a couple of times, and my hair was flying all around my face. I felt like a leaf being tossed about by raucous winds!

I finally just stopped walking and just looked around me. I studied each building on either side of the street and even took a picture of one of them, a beautiful old New England church. While I was watching, I noticed a young man rushing through the rain, up the steps of the church and it hit me...that maybe, my meeting might be in that church. I hurried across the street, up the stairs, blew into the entrance, right into the pastor I was supposed to be meeting! I couldn't believe it. Happily for me, they were just getting started, so I didn't miss anything.

When I left, I got to thinking that there might be more to this lovely old church. Sure enough, as I went out the gate, I noticed a plaque stating that in 1776, the British removed the steeple of the church so the patriots could not use it for signaling or spying. (The Old North Church was not a similar worry because that congregation was largely Tory. Those of you who know history, though, know that Paul Revere had a well-placed friend in the sexton who did use that steeple to signal Revere...one if by land, two if by see...). You can read more about the fascinating history of this church here.

One side-note to this whirlwind visit (literally) is that in my haste to find where I was supposed to be, I parked in a city parking lot near to where I thought the church should be. As I was leaving 2 hours later, the pastor asked if he could validate my parking ticket. When he saw the ticket he said "Oh, you should have parked in the underground, lot." He stamped the ticket anyway and gave me $20 to "help with your parking fee." Wow! I thought. That's going to be an expensive 2 hours! When I gave my validated ticket to the attendant, she looked at it and said that this lot wasn't eligible for the 50 cents parking fee. I explained I was a first-time visitor and had no idea even where to park. She told me I'd have to pay the full fee, which ended up being $22. I tried to give her the money, but then she picked up the phone and called someone...resulting in her saying she'd take just 50 cents this time but next time to park underground. Wasn't that nice of her? The pastor will get his $20 back next time I see him!