The Tucson area of southern Arizona has a regular monsoon season from roughly the fourth of July until Labor Day. Its impact is variable and unpredictable. Some areas get much more rain than others. I blogged about one year ago that Oro Valley, a Tucson suburb where my wife and I live, was inundated. This year we got even more while most of Tucson accumulated slightly less than the average amount. A few weeks ago, my wife and I awoke to find an overnight deluge had swept an enormous load of branches, mud, and rocks down a wash from Pusch Ridge, where our mountain-side home is situated, that crosses our driveway. The branches got stuck, created a dam, and the mud and rocks piled up behind. The outcome was a wall of this stuff that was two to three feet deep crossing our driveway. I’ve been shoveling and sweeping ever since. It’s a shame the rain isn’t spread over the year. We may not see rain again for months.

Another rain induced effect was massive overgrowth of weeds, tall grasses, and the palo verde trees that sprouted limbs galore. The overall effect from a distance is an attractive greening of the nearby Catalina mountains. Up close in our yard it’s not so pretty. This means I’ve been pulling weeds and trimming trees as well as tending to the mess on the driveway. Still, these infrequent events are a small price to pay for the pleasure of living in this area the rest of the year.