Monsoon Sunsets

I've taken about 150 digital photos in the past three days.  The combination of great picture-taking conditions and serious sleep deprivation leaves me with even less ability than usual to pick and choose what I show you.  So this entry is going to have way too many pictures.  Sorry.

The reason I've been taking so many photos, aside from the Round Robin Photo Challenge, is that Tucson's had dramatic weather this week.  Ladies and gentlemen, we have a monsoon!  Quoting from the National Weather Service monsoon page:

The 2005 Monsoon began on July 18th, 2nd latest start.

That goes along with all sorts of records this year for having a long string of very hot days, almost all of them topping out at 110 or higher.

The monsoon, of course, is a seasonal weather pattern that brings moisture up from Mexico and the Pacific to fuel most of Tucson's annual rainfall. The web site I linked to above explains it better than I can. Basically, it means that for parts of July and August in Tucson, it frequently rains between five to seven PM, and occasionally at night.  Most of the rain falls on the mountains that ring the city, but sometimes we get a serious thunderstorm, with flash floods and power outages.

The monsoon brings clouds, of course, and clouds are fun to photograph, especially as part of a sunset.  So I've been taking a zillion pictures of clouds and sunsets, and even of darkness.

Monday evening, while waiting for chicken wings near Safeway:






Tuesday evening at Boston Market, 22nd and Kolb:





The wind of the approaching storm toys with a promotional banner and a string of banner flags.



Sunset viewed from inside the restaurant.   I took at least a dozen pictures outside, too, but this one is more unusual.

 

And here comes the rain!

There was lightning in the distance all evening long, but not much rain.  I took about thirty pictures in five minutes around midnight, trying to catch lightning in a box.  None of the lightning was that great, I didn't get lucky, and the camera wasn't up to the challenge.  But I like this shot of the Safeway lot at midnight:



The thing that looks like a lake is the roof of my car.

Here is the best of my lightning pictures, taken near my house when I got back from Safeway.  I fiddled with it to make it more visible.  It ended up looking a bit like Starry Night, except, you know, not very nice.



The balls of light are street lights.

Wednesday evening:



I took this picture more to capture the lights on the gas station than to photograph the sunset behind them.  The lights flared too much to look the way I wanted, but it's still kind of a neat shot.



Taken in motion after the light changed.



Just past sunset on my street.



I took this one in front of my house at dusk.  Again, I lightened it a lot.

Weird.  In trying to be selective, I've left out almost all of the pictures I specifically set aside for tonight.  Oh, well!

Karen