First Haboob of the Season

Don and I went to Chili's for dinner tonight and were surprised to see the big dust cloud on the horizon as we headed back home.  The air was very still without any breeze at all.  As is customary with a dirt storm...customarily called an haboob, the dirt slowly appears on the horizon and then the winds come pushing the cloud along its path. 

 

Within 10 minutes of first spotting the cloud on the horizon, the winds came roaring in and here is the view from our kitchen window.  It was strong enough to be called a storm but as usual, not a drop of rain and within 20 minutes all was clear and calm again. 

The newsworthy part of the story is that the official monsoon season starts on June 15 and today (the 16th) we had our first storm.  The weather reports can be proud of the date they set.  Here is a paragraph from the web regarding our Arizona monsoon season:

Prior to 2008 the Phoenix area monsoon was considered to have started when there were three consecutive days when the dew point averaged 55 degrees or higher. In 2008 the National Weather Service decided to take the guesswork out of monsoon start and end dates. After all, monsoon is a season, and most people should not be concerned with whether or not a particular dust storm was defined as monsoon storm or not. Beginning in 2008, June 15 was established as the first day of monsoon, and September 30 will be the last day. Now we can be more concerned with monsoon safety and less concerned with definitions.

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Earlier in the day, we saw some surveyors still busy at work.

Equipment is now over by the west fence line.

Avis got a few pictures from her patio of fence work in action.

 

 

She also keeps me entertained with her roadrunner stories as they come to visit her on her patio.

Yes....that is a little piece of balogne in his beak.  Wonder where he found that tasty morsel out here in the desert.  Any ideas Avis???  :)

When Avis loaned me her camera to get the above photos, I found this beautiful butterfly photo on her camera so I stole it to share with you.  It is a Tiger Swallowtail I believe.

Our hard working landscape crew is still at work trimming the shrubs.

 

And to end this post.........here is what we found when we went to check on the lovely home of Kent and Lesley Evans.  They thought it was time that the toilets smiled back at us as we flush them on our house inspection rounds.  Thanks for sending us a smile Kent!!