Caribbean Visitor......
We always welcome visitors in West Texas, especially one's bearing rain. Tropical Storm/Hurricane/Tropical Storm Claudette now sits about 100 miles to the south of Midland, and she's brought some great weather! Mid July weather in Western Texas can be the dog days. They can be unbearably hot, deathly still and without a single cloud in the sky for weeks on end. Thanks to Claudette we have a 86°, a strong breeze and thunder showers in the area.
We are not total strangers to used up hurricanes, but usually we receive the benefit of Mexican storms coming in from the Pacific. Being so far west, we actually are almost as close to the Pacific Ocean's Gulf of California as we are to the Atlantic's Gulf of Mexico. Claudette was a wimpish storm as far as hurricanes go, but she is long lived and is bringing great rains to areas of Texas that really need it. Perhaps the Rio Grande will start flowing again! Yes, for out of towners, this great river virtually stopped flowing and for several years now, it has not even been able to muster up the spit to make it all the way to the sea.....it just stops or rather, just peters out in southern Texas.
What made me chose this topic this fine evening was a thought I had as I was walking the Big Gold Dog and watching the moving bands of thunder storms in the area. It occured to me what an amazing thing this is....this storm that had it's origins in the Caribbean thousands of miles away over lush tropical isles, raining itself out over hundreds of square miles in the deserts of the Southwest. It makes one feel rather small. I think that this is a good feeling sometimes.
We always welcome visitors in West Texas, especially one's bearing rain. Tropical Storm/Hurricane/Tropical Storm Claudette now sits about 100 miles to the south of Midland, and she's brought some great weather! Mid July weather in Western Texas can be the dog days. They can be unbearably hot, deathly still and without a single cloud in the sky for weeks on end. Thanks to Claudette we have a 86°, a strong breeze and thunder showers in the area.
We are not total strangers to used up hurricanes, but usually we receive the benefit of Mexican storms coming in from the Pacific. Being so far west, we actually are almost as close to the Pacific Ocean's Gulf of California as we are to the Atlantic's Gulf of Mexico. Claudette was a wimpish storm as far as hurricanes go, but she is long lived and is bringing great rains to areas of Texas that really need it. Perhaps the Rio Grande will start flowing again! Yes, for out of towners, this great river virtually stopped flowing and for several years now, it has not even been able to muster up the spit to make it all the way to the sea.....it just stops or rather, just peters out in southern Texas.
What made me chose this topic this fine evening was a thought I had as I was walking the Big Gold Dog and watching the moving bands of thunder storms in the area. It occured to me what an amazing thing this is....this storm that had it's origins in the Caribbean thousands of miles away over lush tropical isles, raining itself out over hundreds of square miles in the deserts of the Southwest. It makes one feel rather small. I think that this is a good feeling sometimes.
