Saturday, September 1, 2007

Rain!

Rain. Yesterday afternoon, it rained. A glorious, if brief, downpour dropped 0.16" (about 4mm) of water on our parched patch of desert. Oh, it was wonderful! Big, fat raindrops splatting all around us. The ground actually got wet. The dust sloughed off the chaparral's leaves. The air filled with the delicious aroma of wet earth. The temperature dropped by 10 or 15 degrees (F) in just a few minutes. A rainbow crossed Lawson Valley. And the fuel moisture shot up to over 20% – so, if only for a few days, our fire danger is greatly reduced.

There's a 20% chance of rain each day and night through Monday. We're hoping for more!