A rainy day rarity in ABQ

I had been wondering what I would post about next. Then, it came to me: while everyone's used to rain and cooler weather back home, it's pretty rare that it happens out here. We had a 2-day streak of thunderstorms and temperatures below 80 last week (they reached 68 during the day on Friday) and I knew I had to blog about that somehow. It was kind of funny, hours before the rain started, with the temperature hovering around 70, people were walking around campus in hoodies, fully zipped-up jackets and jeans. I was the only one I saw wearing a t-shirt while walking along the busy routes from class to class. I guess they really aren't that used to damp coolness (not quite cold) out here!

These first few photos are from in the morning when I walked over to North Campus to go visit the lock shop and get my special keys made for all the grad student things in the Linguistics Department (grad library, language lab, etc). It only rains in the evening here, so you could see the clouds looming and gathering strength all day. Normally, the skies are completely clear!

I tried my best to get some shots of the downpour that happened later that evening, but nothing was coming out very well. However, I managed to grab a shot of a very big rainbow that popped up as the thunderstorm ended and things started to switch over to regular rain. Sadly, I couldn't get a good enough angle to take a photo of the wonderful sight of this rainbow near the Sandias, and had to settle for this. Still looks pretty neat though!

Another thing about evening rains is that the sky clears very quickly afterward, and the clear skies are night are wonderful for taking pictures. Here are some shots of the Sandias overlooking Johnson Field (you may recognize the place from earlier posts). I tried various picture-taking settings to see what would look best in the low light.

  

And of course, I had to take some shots from the landing right in front of my third-floor apartment, facing the west. You can just see the sunset going down, and the sky turning its usual cloudless deep blue, especially in the last photo, facing the east.
 

 

I wish now that the Sandias were in the west so that I could get some sunset photos with them! However, come the Balloon Fiesta (about 3.5 weeks away!), I'll be up before 5:30 at least one day to catch the Dawn Patrol and see the lighted hot air balloons, as well as take some pictures of the sun rising over the Sandias. Still, don't wait til then to come back here, and be sure to check out next week's post too!