October 8 -- A Douglas Grocery Run, And the Birth, Life and Death Of An Anvil Cloud

Well, there were actually TWO "anvil" clouds, and another one was forming above me, on October 7--- but first the events of the day of October 8. I started off the day early, going to my friends Mark and Lori's house here in Portal to refill the hummingbird and bird feeders, then went to Rodeo in New Mexico (The Most "Western" town in New Mexico, as it's just 2 miles at most from the border with Arizona)  to meet with Helen for breakfast, then both of us go to Douglas. The Rodeo Grocery and Cafe is one of only 2 "eateries" in Rodeo, the other being the Rodeo Tavern which is only open on certain days of the week and only for lunch and dinner. The cafe is a great place for local ranchers and workers to have breakfast and talk about local and international things, so conversations are drifting around about migrant workers and the flooding in South Carolina. After breakfast Helen and I take the drive on Highway 80 down to Douglas, about 50 miles away. Helen, a raptor expert from way back along with her husband, had a Northern Goshawk nest in the back of her car; I told her she's probably the only one in the entire country to have a nest in their car!  It is HUGE, almost as large as a Bald Eagle nest as the Goshawks have been using it for years. It came down when the branch that was supporting it weakened at crashed to the ground. Helen and her husband Noel were picking though it to see what the Goshawks ate; she found the probable skulls of Montezuma Quail and the blue feathers of a Mexican Jay, among other delicacies. One thing about living in Portal is you never lack seeing things you wouldn't see in, say, Los Angeles...Helen pointing out, and IDing, raptors on the drive south; most of them were Swanson's and Red-tailed Hawks, quite a few in fact. We got down to Douglas, did our chores -- one of which was getting gas for Tundra Dos (it was either there or in Animas, 25 miles away from Portal in New Mexico), then we did our grocery run at Wal-Mart. Helen related a story that a Safeway across the street from the Wal-Mart closed, naturally, once Wal-Mart started stocking the same "boutique" food items that Safeway had -- which Wal-Mart, of course, never had before; a blatant example of running a competitor out of town, then taking the Safeway employees and giving them wages barely above the poverty level -- and no medical insurance, of course. Still, we go to Wal-Mart because they, along with Food City, are the only grocery stores in Douglas, and they're the closest full-service stores to Portal. We're kind of like a "captive audience"; we have no choice. (This is a refrain you'll be hearing many times from me,  because it's true.) But it doesn't bother me as it's "part and parcel" of rural life here. And Wal-Mart has the convenience of being a full-service store -- grocery, household items, a garden section, hair salon for haircuts, and a pharmacy where you can get flu shots. So it's pretty much one-stop. Though we do go to the "tractor store" up the street where I look at heavy work gloves (mine are good but I need heavier ones when I tackle the mesquite) and Helen convinces me to buy a kerosene lantern in case we lose power once again (and I'd also bought a 2.5-gallon water container at Wal-Mart). We have lunch at La Fiesta, a great little Mexican restaurant, then head back home to Portal. After Helen and I split up in Rodeo, she to drive back with the Goshawk nest in back, I drive up Portal Road and -- the clouds once again...

That's Portal Road underneath it. While at Wal-Mart I bought a rubber "container", or large dish, for holding water; it's a temporary water feature to replace the stinky, green, yucky water feature encased in concrete that the birds bathe in, and deer drink from. I place the dish, with water and rocks in it for birds to perch, on boards over the present water feature so the animals will have to use the new one -- and watch. A flock of White-crowned Sparrows come along -- and they're hopping around the new water container, trying to get into the old one!  Hopefully their stupidity will end soon and they'll use the new one. 

Now on the October 7's anvil clouds..."Thunderheads" is kind of like a generic term that is used to describe huge clouds that may or may not produce rain, thunder and lightning. The clouds I saw off to the northeast were different -- cumulonimbus incus (incus meaning "anvil"). They're clouds that have reached that level of the stratosphere where they become unstable, and the tops flatten out into the shape of an anvil. It's somewhat like they're reached a ceiling, and can't rise any further, so they spread on horizontally and form the shape of an anvil. They're extremely pretty to look at --- but are one of the most dangerous clouds around. They can create unstable weather -- hail, lightning, flash floods -- even tornadoes, if given time and forming a "super cell". The common reaction, when an anvil cloud is sighted above you, is to run for shelter to protect yourself against multiple weather threats. And in this particular instance there was not one, but TWO anvil clouds...

I was watching from my front deck and was lucky to see them form, and photograph the sequence. I call it "The Birth, Life and Death of An Anvil Cloud", And all of this happened in a space of 31 minutes, Here's the sequence -- 

In the Beginning...That's heavy rain underneath

Uh-oh...

WHEW! 

And all the time while this was going on, there was a massive cloud forming just to the north of me, over the Chiricahuas. A friend of mine had taken a photo around the same time of the cloud -- and it was massive, and given time might have formed into an anvil cloud. But after sunset -- it dissipated. While all of this was dangerous, it could have been disastrous. But it wasn't, and instead was fascinating -- and another reason why the Chiricahuas, and this extreme part of SE Arizona, is so special. You can look in the ground and see coatimundi, Chiricahuan Red Squirrel, Coues Deer,  hundreds of species of spiders, lizards, snakes -- but every so often check the skies; you too may see s billowy cloud that will turn into something "unique"...