A Little Bit of Calcutta

Arizona is certainly a state prone to climactic extremes - it has both the hottest metropolitan area in country (Phoenix), and one of the coldest (Flagstaff).

But, on the whole, and as everyone has been warning me since mid-November when I was placed here, Arizona is primarily a dry, arid state. Hell - I live in a desert.

Now, that being said, I'll talk about another place I've lived for just a second. Hong Kong, in the Asian subtropics, was about as non-arid as it gets. Hong Kong was wet. Monsoons were serious business - they call it "Black Rain", because you can't see a damn thing when it happens.

I loved Hong Kong - I hated the weather, and I'm glad to be done with it. It was the worst thing I hated about Hong Kong.

I've always associated monsoons with the tropics, with Asia, with India, with rainforests.

I no longer think those things. Arizona is prone to monsoons, too. The Arizona Monsoons mean the dry, sunny desert can become a cold, wet, humid, flooded mess in about 8 seconds. Seriously. You see those black clouds, you run. And if you're stuck in a wash, which are the dried streams in the desert, you're dead when those suckers flood. (I would provide a reference link for that, too, but I just learned that on a CSI: episode a few years back, but I'm sure it's true. Look it up if you must, but I place much faith in Gil Grissom and his crew.)

It's actually beautiful. But they wreak havoc on the Valley's transportation systems during the month of August. I mean, the freeways shut down. Traffic comes to a standstill. Despite, the police presence on the roads, Zonies are...how can I say this...interpretive drivers, at best. No one knows how to drive in rain, so people literally just put cars into park on the freeways. A 10-minute commute becomes a fifty-minute one.

I have a friend from Arizona (I hope you're reading this, Kimberly!) who had to ask us how windshield wipers worked - don't deny it Kim, we were in BK. But that's pretty much par for the course here.

The Arizona Monsoon is like when it snows in North Carolina or when a chicken runs around with its head cut off: fun to watch, and beautiful (maybe not so much the chicken), but you don't really want to be the one involved in it.

peace and love from the grand canyon state,

pb