Rain in July...

And pretty soon, you’ve got a half inch of rain. In these parts, a half inch of rain is not the usual July experience — July here is normally comprised of wall-to-wall blue skies, hot and dry days, and cool, comfortable nights. This July saw us with relatively humid days (along with the hot), quite a few uncomfortably warm nights, and rain.

Weirdness!

But welcome weirdness. The native desert plants that surround us are experts at slurping up this unexpected moisture; they will all benefit (and they were already in robust good shape because of the spring rains). The weeds will most likely pop up again — we’ll know that in a day or two. And perhaps most importantly: the fuel (mainly dead plant material, wood, twigs, and leaves) is now all dampened down again, and it will take a bunch of hot, dry days to dry it all out. That translates into reduced fire danger for several weeks, at least.

We like rain!