Arizona Rain

We have loved coming down to Arizona to bask in the sun and the heat during the not so sunny and warm Alberta winters. This trip we're seeing a different side of Arizona winter. They've had record amounts of rain this winter. It's still warmer than Alberta though so we're enjoying it.

The sky was amazing. There were rolling dark thunderclouds interspersed with blue and grey and white sky. There was no doubt that the rain was going to start.

As long as we've been coming down here we've never seen water in New River, or any of the other dry riverbeds in this area. The riverbeds were just dry washes with shrubs and grasses growing in them. Yesterday as we crossed one of the bridges across New River, we actually saw a real river - water! Cool.

This is a picture from the same bridge as above, only the other side, taken as we were returning home from watching the most exciting Gold Medal hockey game ever! Go Canada!

We were in a store during the worse of the rain storm yesterday. The sound of the rain beating on the roof was incredible. I heard a girl ask her mother, "Is that rain??" We went out before the rain stopped and it felt different from AB rain - it was warm and soft and fell in great big plops. The intersections had a hard time handling the deluge so we had to go carefully through huge puddles.

Everything looked clean and fresh as we made our way home. It hadn't rained so much in Surprise though. It's amazing how localized the rain was.

We topped our wet day off by having a moonlight swim in the pool. The air temperature was around 67F but the water temp was 85. It was beautiful - there was a mist rising off the water and the moon was full, with rainbow colors reflecting in the clouds around it. I could have stayed out there for hours...so peaceful and calm after the excitement of the day.