Rain in the Desert

Lubbock is not in the desert, technically.  We are technically considered "semi-arid."  I am not sure what that means, except that our average rainfall is higher than a true desert.  But we have the sweltering heat, the dry, dusty winds, and the very often, cool nights in the summer.  And the regular low humidity.

Last week, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights we had rain showers. Wednesday was the evening  when the winds were 60 to 80 mph, and did so much damage.  My rain gauge had 1 inch of rain. Friday morning, after the Thursday night rain, my rain gauge had .25 inches of rain. And Saturday morning, the rain gauge had .5 inches of rain. I might add that each night, I had my south-facing bedroom windows locked open about 3 inches, and no rain came in. So, the rain was not from the south.

The rain is good, and helps the plants, and lawns, and adds water to the water bodies around here.

This Friday morning, as I was getting ready for work, I saw large, very widely spaced intermittent drops of rain. I was reminded of the cartoons of Wiley Coyote, dashing between raindrops to stay dry.  Whoever made that cartoon understood rain in the desert.  You can almost actually do that.  Sometimes, the rain is so sparse, the drops are truly that few and far in between. 

Additionally, virga http://weather.about.com/od/v/g/virga.htm happens a lot. And, we have mud rain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_dust.  I  experienced this the first year I lived in Lubbock, 1977, when I was returning to Lubbock by plane on a business trip.

Rain in the desert is interesting. It can cause flash floods.  It stimulates plants that have been dormant for very long periods of time, allows them to blossom and do what plants need to do to procreate, and then, go dormant again.

Desert animals also maximize rains.  Nature is truly amazing in the adaptions that have occurred over the years, to allow plants and animals to exist in harsh environments.