It's Raining, It's Pouring!

The monsoons have been pretty fierce this summer. And my goodness! It has been humid!! I want the dry heat back. I don't even mind if it is 120. It beats 105 with 30% humidity. Anyway, last weekend, Frank was in Chicago, so I took my mom and brother to California (I'll share about that trip later). Wouldn't you know it, the minute we crossed state lines storms rolled into Las Vegas. Real ones! I heard inches of rain fell across the valley and winds up to 75mph uprooted trees. Areas around the strip were hit hardest, from the hotel room in Cali, I was able to pull up stories and photos of casinos flooding. It wasn't until we got home that we saw the damage. My brother lives near the Palms and his complex looked like a war zone with dozens of downed trees, mangled fencing and carports. Fortunately, the units themselves didn't seem to sustain any damage. Only one tree was uprooted in my neighborhood, pine needles were the biggest mess by me. We were all disappointed that we missed great storms. Lightning shows are something we miss most about Chicago.

This weekend, we went out to my mom's in Pahrump. The day began warm, sunny and humid. We went to Saddle West for brunch and by the time we left the skies turned dark and visibility was nil since the winds had kicked up so much dust. It started with drizzle and was a complete down pour in no time. At times the rain fell so hard and fast the view out the windows resembled the view out the car windows during a car wash. Not only did it fall hard and fast but also sideways. Hail fell too. My mom had a rushing river run across her property filling her dry duck pond. She used to have dozens of fowl, but there was a massacre with no survivors. On this day, it was a good thing because the duck pen flooded fast. The poor chickens and ducks would have had no high ground and would've likely drowned.

We watched out the windows are the storm cells came and went. Dropping inches of rain and strong winds blew items all around the yard. We went out to assess the damage and everything seemed to be holding up A-OK. Water was flowing, but the horse didn't seem to be in any danger.











We took the opportunity between storms to head home, we snapped a few photos from around town. The family in the RZR seemed to be having the best time. It looked like a blast!













We've had some bad storms over the past ten years, but I can't recall ever having two a week apart that affected both Las Vegas and Pahrump to this extent. And the monsoons aren't over yet.