October 22 -- Weather Scenes in the "Boot Heel "...

You try to go into the "big" town as little as possible here as it's so far away; I drove 125 miles round-trip to Douglas for a "grocery run". I have a pantry, as do many people here, and store bulk items in it -- sugar (a 20-pound bag for the hummingbird feeders -- they're hooked on sugar), rice, pasta, bird food, trash bags, etc. And when, in this instance, you're at Douglas you go to other stores to get things you need -- in today's case, a hardware store for heavy gloves for future mesquite cutting (and they're spiny --- ouch! ) I have one prescription that I had to transfer to Food City, one of 2 (the other being Wal-Mart) big grocery stores in Douglas. There is only one route down to Douglas from Portal, Highway 80. It's pretty much devoid of development -- I avoid using the term "empty" because it's not; it's full of spectacular scenery and land that has been untouched except for cattle grazing in spots. It looks like the savannahs in Africa, or at least what I imagine them to look like -- rolling land of grass waving in the breeze, and mountain ranges on all sides of you. And the raptors -- on abandoned telephone poles, tall agave, the occasional tree. Swanson's and Red-tailed hawks, mostly, but you have to look carefully because there might be the odd Ferruginous or other uncommon raptor along the highway. There are big 18-wheelers whizzing by, bringing and taking loads across the border with Mexico. I don't wave at them, but I do at "used-looking" trucks because chances are they are locals, ranchers and ranch workers, and you have the connection that you're both living out here. But as you'e driving back, and you see Portal Peak and the area of Rodeo, New Mexico and Portal, well, you know you're "home" and glad to be back where you belong. I've only been living here a little more than 2 months, and I already feel that way...

Now -- the weather here. Ever since I arrived it's been consistently unpredictable, and certainly not "wimpy". The sky here can rival the Big Sky country of Montana --and, for someone from the predictable weather of southern California, it's a revelation. First, there are the morning scenes, with the familiar peaks of Cave Creek Canyon looking west, with morning clouds making creating light and dark patterns on the rocks formations --

Looking south up a Portal Peak, the rising sun combines with low clouds and the jagged landscape that gives a feeling of a scene from The Lord of The Rings, perhaps the mountains of Mordor, though these here are more friendly -- 

Over on the east side of the San Simon Valley, in the Hidalgo County of New Mexico (one of the least populated counties in the country; Portal is part of Cochise County, which has the large city of Sierra Vista, so it averages out to more people per square mile) , the look west to the Chiricahuas, once again in the early morning, has a wisp of ground fog floating just above the ground. ---

The San Simon Valley tends to be colder than Portal, especially in winter, with the ground fog being trapped in the valley, and Portal is at a higher elevation and gets the morning sun earlier. 

Now for the REALLY dramatic weather phenomenon... Thunderheads that almost form into "anvil clouds" form in the early morning and evenings. And there is an optical illusion in this photo; it looks like there's a mountain range on the left behind the Peloncillos, but they're a layer of dark clouds -- 

As the day advances, another massive thunderhead threatens to become an active anvil cloud -- 

And here's a closeup of Wednesday's cloudburst. A "new" friend here said it's a "hailburst", hail coming the clouds, and that how you can tell is hail looks white, while rain is darker; you decide  -- 

Either way it's impressive. As sunset approaches, things for the most part begin to quiet down, and the setting sun creates shadows on the Peloncillos to the east in New Mexico ---

An interesting fact is the Peloncillos were the last place where jaguar was seen in the US, in 1997 and was photographed. That kind of thing can happen here, or at least you get the feeling it can. Finally, clouds and sunset color create drama above the Chiricahuas' Silver Peak to the west -- 

So once again, look to the sky here in the Boot Heel of Arizona and New Mexico -- you never know what you might miss.