Wind - bah!
Forget the previous post. I’m not sure that rain lasted even long enough for the post to upload. Today is cool and windy. Red flag conditions yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We need a good wet summer and we need it now.
Weather Reports Archive April 2011
Blessed Rain!
It just started, so let’s hope it increases and continues.
It has been cloudy all day, with humidities up (35% humidity, as opposed to 5% yesterday). The temperature is around 60° and the breeze is just a breeze. This is a welcome trend!
They number two
Actually, they numbered (at least) two yesterday: one male and one female black-chinned hummingbirds are visiting the nectar feeder with some regularity, even in the howling winds we had for much of yesterday and today.
Oh yes, warm & windy. It was warm enough yesterday evening that we left the window next to the bed open all night. Not open wide, mind you, since the winds were still raging; but open nonetheless. A first for 2011!
I’ve been scolded for not giving more details on my injury. I broke the left fibula at the ankle, have a boot splint, am to keep the weight off it for a couple of weeks but I might be given permission to walk on it then. Meanwhile, most chores have been handed off to Alan & I am enjoying rest and reading vacation. Not too much pain, except when it first happened and if I’m stuck with the leg not elevated for too long; and I wouldn’t have realized that it could be broken but Dee insisted I go to Urgent Care to have it x-rayed -- because when it happened there was a very loud “crack!”
How it happened (this is why I didn’t post details before): I was walking. That’s it: walking in the corral, on bare dry dirt in my good hiking shoes, and I still managed to roll my ankle and break it. Oh well. I guess I just had too many good books piled up waiting for my attention.
Not everybody can have a sexy sports injury, after all.
Meanwhile, I am able to have tea on the porch in the mornings and listen to the birds, and the hummingbirds have returned to the feeder.
Hummingbird the First
He or she just appeared at the nook, looking for some Clute-made nectar. (That is now underway and will be up in a trice.) I only got a glance but it was enough to confirm that our first hummingbird has arrived.
We are having basic very windy spring. Most days are in the 50s or 60s, sometimes warmer, but often not so warm that the wind is comfortable to be out in.
And I managed to break a leg, so I’m not being out in it anyway. I did achieve tea on the porch this morning, first time since Monday; but the jays didn’t get any peanuts from me, which did not please them. They haven’t been treated since Monday, either! (But isn’t it a touch peculiar that I’m worried what the scrub jays think of me?)
Last evening’s sunset was superb: just enough clouds in the west to have gorgeous peach, orange, and vermilion hues.
Rain overnight
A tenth of an inch. The first measurable precipitation since the snow back in February. We needed that, and would like some more, please.
Merely breezy, thank God
Cooler today, too, down to 27° overnight and just 58° now.
The last few days were another matter entirely.
As you know, we have been having warm weather the last few weeks. Friday in particular was a gift: warm and just a touch breezy. I spent the entire afternoon on our courtyard porch (what we are now christening the reading porch), reading a good book. What a treat!
Then Saturday the winds picked up and the temperatures did too. We flirted with 80! Topped out at 79° here at Happy Camp, and the breezes were rather brisk.
We noticed smoke, which prompted a call to a neighbor, since the mesa was obscuring the source of the smoke and we were first concerned about Phase 2.
As it turned out, the fire was well away from Deer Canyon. It broke out Saturday afternoon in the Rio Grande bosque near Bernardo — north of Hwy 60 and east of I-25. It has burned about 2000 acres, is now 25% contained, and seems to be well under control at this point.
Early Saturday evening, as a test, Donna and Jane activated the emergency phone tree with info about the Bernardo fire, letting DCP residents know that we were not immediately threatened (it's 40 miles away, after all) but to be aware of the situation. Donna reports that the phone tree functioned well; but I have to admit that I didn’t have a current copy and for a while the HOA site would not respond. So when we picked up the message on our machine that was left as part of the test, I ended up calling a friend to find out who I was supposed to call on the phone tree. Oops! (Sorry, Donna! I’ve got it now! And I printed out a second copy for our bug-out bag.)
Yesterday the smoke cleared out of our skies, but that was only because of the incredible winds we were experiencing. Sustained winds around 20 mph (doesn’t sound like much until you’re in it all day) combined with gusts up to 45 mph. Knowing that there was an active fire out there did not make the day pass any more comfortably.
So we are very glad that a cold front came through overnight and today is only slightly breezy.
Just for your information, a much larger fire sprang up yesterday in Ruidoso. The break in weather is really helping the firefighters there, too.
If you think about us, send us some (lots of) rain, okay?