Mrs Bear and I have been spending much of our last few winters in California’s Coachella Valley. It is an extremely beautiful destination, surrounded on three sides by mountains that rise up to 8,000 feet above sea level. The valley floor is at less than 1,000 feet. These mountains also create the valley as part of the Mojave Desert. So rain here is very rare.
And so it was with anticipation and interest that we waited for the arrival of an actual rain storm to roll through the valley this week. The picture above is looking west at the San Jacinto Mountains with the first hints of clouds making their way over the peaks.
By the next morning, the mountains were starting to cloud over as the rain tried to push in from the coastal lowlands.
The rain arrives …
Palm Springs and its surrounding communities have flood plains for the rainfall to run into, but there are many areas of roadways and low elevations where “pooling” occurs.
The picture above shows water collecting on a hill on the golf course, and running downhill to a low point to form a temporary lake.
By the next morning, the rain had ended in the valley, and was receding back up the mountain faces. The cloud cover on the mountains clears from the top to the bottom, and it actually provided the remnants of a rainbow …
And looking north, we could see the new snow at roughly 8,000 feet elevation…
All of this occurred with 0.15 inch of rainfall … Los Angeles received 1.00. So experiencing a rain event in the desert is educational, fun, and unexpected. And all the cacti replenished their moisture storage for the summer to come !!
The Adventures of Barry Brink 