Sunday August 20th 2017

The weather got in the way of today’s plans. Last nights forecast for this area was possible thundershowers late in the day. That forecast held trough the morning. I sat outside in the sunshine, with the TV on, reading, finishing my morning coffee and watching the weekend residents depart. The park was alive with little kids all weekend. It’s amazing how quiet it got after they all departed.

Another of the interesting flower plantings at this campground.

Around 1PM I came in to get a bite of lunch in preparation for taking a drive to the southwest. While I was inside the clouds moved in and the wind began to howl. The change was sudden. It couldn’t have been more than five minutes from full sun to gray and cloudy. A minute long cloud burst that didn’t do much more than wet the ground followed about 5 minutes later. It then went back to just wind and started to lighten up a bit. When I went outside to assess the impact of the cloud burst, I saw the main area of rain less than a quarter a mile away. There is a school next to the campground. The far side of the schools athletic field was getting drown in rain. It continued over there for fifteen or twenty minutes, but nothing here. I just don’t understand the way weather works in this area. The combination of mountains and desert seem to generate some interesting weather behavior. You really need the local knowledge that comes from past experience in the area.

The cloud cover continued and it threatened rain all afternoon. My cell phone weather radar showed the whole area covered in storm conditions.  I found the RedSox game on TV and settled in for a good outcome. The Sox won five to one over the Yankees. I may move today’s plans to tomorrow after the eclipse. This area has an 80 percent coverage and will peak around 11:30am. I don’t want to be on the roads during the event. People seem to be going crazy about the eclipse.