Shake, Rattle, and Roll!

Posted on June 5, 2010 by Ellen

“Gorgeous and sunny! 70 degrees this afternoon!” Day after day, this is how I recorded the weather in Yuma from December through March. Every once in awhile it would cool off, dipping into the 50s on a rare day.

Then, the weather people on the local TV station got very excited — we suddenly had a 10% chance of rain! Get ready for that rain, they said. Then it went to 20% and they started talking as if a major storm was brewing. This was very funny to us.

We’d been in Yuma for five or six weeks and had stopped watching the weather as closely as we usually do — the reports were always about the same: sunny and nice. Now they were talking about a big storm coming. On a Wednesday night, it started to rain. Then it rained all the next day, too. The closest I got to the rain was taking these photos from inside the rig:

Saw some stunning clouds…

… and this beautiful — though faint — rainbow:

The clouds were dramatic the day after the storm passed, too:

That single storm brought 2″ of rain to the area, flooding many roads and causing all kinds of problems.

Less than a month later — more rain, and an even more beautiful rainbow!

Yuma had more rain in the few months we were there than the less than 3″ they normally get all year — but even so, it was a dry winter to us. We were happy to be in a place where they measure rain in the hundredths of an inch, to be sure.

If the worst you can expect all winter long is some rain (and not much rain at that), maybe a little hail, then what more can you want?

Did I say hail?

The clouds looked pretty menacing as we drove into town for groceries…