Snow where it belongs

Following the passage of the weather front that brought three days of welcome rain, the skies cleared allowing us to see how low the snow level was. It’s really neat to see the horizontal line, where the storm transitioned from rain to snow, so vividly revealed. That’s Mt. San Jacinto, the summit of which is just over 10,000’ above sea-level. The snow line is right around 4,000’. That’s the lowest we’ve seen it in the years we’ve spent here. We are told that it was much lower in the storms that happened while we were home for Christmas.

Another cold storm is forecast for this weekend and that will certainly add to the snowpack and might even lower the snow level.

In the brisk wind that followed the storm’s passing the hundreds of wind generators that spill out of the Banning Pass along Interstate 10, to nearly the city limits of Palm Springs were making electricity. Though not pretty, they are interesting to watch as the spin slowly around.

If you look closely just to the left of the light standard in this shot, you’ll see a snazzy private jet flying the last seconds of its approach to Palm Springs International Airport. Maybe it’s the CEO of General Motors coming to town for a couple rounds of golf.

We are still complaining about the much cooler weather though it hasn’t stopped us from enjoying the hot mineral pools every afternoon. Ahhhhh, life is good.

I suppose it’s only human nature to hope that the long episode of marvelous summer-like weather we’ve enjoyed would continue. So far, this winter’s temperatures have averaged well above normal. For example, the average daily hi temperature for Palm Springs at this time of the year is 72 degrees F., and we’ve had day after day at 80 or above.

Well, reality struck last Saturday, as a cold storm (relative to what we had been enjoying) moved into Southern California and brought some rain with it. It didn’t add up to much over the weekend, only .23” of rain but the big change was in the temperatures…much lower temperatures. Today our hi was only in the low 50’s and the storm brought a beautiful rainbow and another .25” of rain with winds up to 50 mph or so. Now I know if your are where the temps have plummeted to zero or below you’re laughing at my complaining about 50 degree days. If, however, you haven’t worn anything other than shorts for 6 weeks, it is COLD.

About ½” of rain is a good start to greening the desert and bringing on the explosion of Spring wildflowers we so enjoy seeing.

A neighbor left for home and forgot their bird feeder in the tree at the front of their place. Judy moved it to our space and we’ve enjoyed watching the yellow finches and other little birds hanging all over it. It’s just a tub of woven material and the birds just stick their beaks into one of the holes in the weave and extract a seed. We have seen as many as 9 birds on it at one time.