Summer Moon of the Summer Solstice
Flash flood warning last night. Heavy rains. Seemed silly the first time, flash flood watch for us, living on a mountain. But of course to get anywhere we have to drive down the mountain. All those creeks: Shadow, Brook Forest, Maxwell, Cub, Deer, Bear. We follow the water down the mountain and there are points where it can escape its banks. Back in 2012 there was significant flooding in Boulder and Manitou Springs and Golden.
Rain dots the screens as I look up toward Black Mountain. It’s shrouded in gray light, the lodgepoles massed and black. The peak of Black Mountain extends 1,200 feet above our altitude here at home, so it dominates the view to the west. Beyond it about 10 miles is Mt. Evans, our weathermaker. Still not sure the exact meteorology of its effects, but they are striking. We get much more precipitation than other areas, many of them physically close to us, but in different relationship to our local 14’er.
According to Weathergeek, who posts on pinecam.com, June saw 3.57 inches of rain making it the rainiest June ever up here. An atypically wet year so far, thanks to El Nino and now the monsoon rains. The bad news about all this rain is, of course, that it makes the grass grow, the shrubs grow, small trees, too. This is a problem as things dry out in mid-July and August. More fuel for the possible wildfires, making them likely to spread, to burn faster and hotter.
