First Rain of Spring

Smell the rain.  I would have never described myself as a desert dweller, but I guess spending over half our year living out in the desert might come close.   We spend most of our time in the Sonoran Desert, which takes us most of southern Arizona and a big chunk of Mexico.

Last night I became aware of the wind becoming rather strong just before midnight.  I didn’t want to have to chase our chairs into New Mexico, so I decided to get up and secure them under Nitsitapiisinni.  As soon as I opened the door I could smell it. Rain. It was going to rain very soon.  I suppose that I am so much more aware of this phenomena here than anywhere else I’ve lived because we have so little rain and our humidity is so low.  Just the smell is invigorating and exciting.

The night sky was clear enough that I could see the clouds moving in from the southwest.  They were dark and obscured the night sky as the approached.  It was almost like they were gobbling up the stars and leaving us with a grey void.  Many people; maybe most; would call the clouds menacing.  This, however, is not the way the plants and animals around us in the Sonoran Desert would interpret it.  Yavapai County, Arizona gets a lot more rain per year than the other desert counties.   Yavapai County gets an average of 13” of rainfall a year. That is over four times more than the other desert areas and still only a third of the national average of 39”. 

I stood for a while feeling the storm approach.  I tried to imagine what it meant to the plants and animals around me. All living things in the desert have their own ways of surviving the long dry spells and storing or conserving water when it does rain. I couldn’t help but think of the precious liquid I had seen being so casually sprayed on road construction the day before.  What toxic chemicals were we putting in the soil?  How long would it take for that water to be again clean enough to support life?  It made me sad and angry at our wasteful species, and I struggled to bring my thoughts back to the wonderful event I was witnessing.  I could feel the moisture in the wind. It was raining.

The monsoon season, which is basically June to September, has not yet begun.  Was this a special treat to celebrate the beginning of spring?  We got 0.04”. I jokingly told Pamela I think I might have accidently soaked up most of that before I came back inside.  Perhaps it was a celebration of Water Appreciation Day, which ended less than an hour after the rain passed.   #MníWičóni  -  Water is Life!   

#OldConservationist

http://www.un.org/en/events/waterday/