Sky Watch

Fleeting

Storms

Sky Watch Saturday

I saw these clouds leaping like dolphins across our skies...

These were on the way home from Albuquerque yesterday.  Must have been some wierd wind currents up there.

El Nino Strikes Again

Guess what we woke up to this morning!  Yep more snow.  It is that pesky El Nino effect.  I saw the paw prints of my three legged cat....

Seems like such a juxtaposition to see snow on cactus.

This was left over snow from High Rolls yesterday.  I love the glinting of the sun.

Let it Snow

More snow pics!  We had severe winds yesterday, very unusual for us in winter, but it crippled the mountains and left them without power.  They had 2 1/2 feet already then 60mph winds come along and it was not pretty.  Trees in the power lines and frantic texts for propane heaters and generators from friends that needed them. 

This is the Founders park with snow still falling!  We got more snow in one fell swoop than we have in the past several years combined!

I was trying to get the water tower but it didn't show up, only the railroad crossing.....

Another Snow Day!

The snow started in the evening and this morning dawned white again. 

The waning full moon of the other night was briefly visible.

The resiliant prickly pear cactus.

  I've always know of pyracanthas; we had one in our yard growing up, but this picture made me realize the origin of the word; pyra meaning fire. And we had been told as children that the berries were poisonous. Upon looking now I read that the "berries are not considered poisonous unless large amounts are eaten".  Maybe our mother was just covering her bases with her warning.

The everyday scenes are enhanced with the rare white.

JM

The morning after...

The Organ Mts. peeked up through the fog that settled in the bottom of the basin.

Clouds were low over the mountains before the sun came up.

The sun was right behind the NMSBVI water tower - awesome!

And the Kids' Kingdom castles poked up through the fog.

The sun finally came out and melted most of the snow that wasn't shaded.

And the full moon finished the day...

JM

Snow Day!

The end of tomatoes for sure!

Branches fell, many at Alameda Park.

Kids were out of school and snowmen sprouted all over town.

JM

October Snow

We had our first taste of winter yesterday.  Very early for us!  I only remember one Halloween as a kid where we had snow, and one Easter.  Rare to be this cold this fast.  It will be warm again by the weekend I am sure.  It was 37 degrees this morning at 8:30 am as I came to work.  You can see the east mountains had a slight dusting of snow visable, but the cars coming down off of the mountain were covered with snow and chunks of ice.

What was cool was that the west mountains also had snow!  They had more than the east ones which doesn't happen often either due to our weather patterns.

They were really quite beautiful in the "brisk" morning....

Sky Play

The skies here are a play of light and shadow when we have storms rolling in and around you. There is nothing like a New Mexico sky. On any day it is dazzling and awesome. It is not washed out or pale, not a lazy sky that merely shows up. Our sky demands attention with brilliant blues, dust devils, towering thunderheads and unparalleled sunset displays. The winter grass here plays against the storm-strewn horizon somewhere around Corona New Mexico in late December.

Snowy Back Road

Snow 2

The road would be clear and sunny and then change in a mile or so...

Snow

We don't get much snow here and this was the extent of what I experienced this year. These were taken north of here on a short Christmas time trip. We hit a cold front and the temperature dropped 30 degrees in 2 miles! We went from being in the 50's to the 20's. We stayed in the snow-like weather for a few hours and then dropped back down out of it fairly quickly. (I say snow-like in deference to those of you that actually have to do things like shovel walks). It is a moody painting on days like these.