The Fifth Season

A headline today reports the hot weather the country has been experiencing.  NOAA is quoted, "Most of the contiguous U.S. was record and near-record warm for the six-month period, except the Pacific Northwest."

Except for the Pacific Northwest?  Sorry about that, Lower Alaska. 

As for Baja Arizona, it's nor-mal. We just call it the summer and monsoon seasons.

See, we have the usual seasons: autumn, winter, spring and summer. But we add a fifth season, monsoon.

Just when I thought the dry heat was getting to much, it turns into the Wet. The change is dramatic. There are clouds in the sky, lightning in the afternoons, and even rain. Evaporative coolers (swamp coolers) have little effect and the A/C keeps the cool. It stays warm at night because the clouds and humidity hold the heat.

The desert smells different. Especially when it rains, the fragrance of the creosote bush is spectacular. New green growth appears on some plants, like the ocotillo which can shed and grow leaves several times a year, and some plants have learned to take advantage of the Wet and flower this time of year.

Bugs, like beetles the size of a small bat, come out that haven't been seen in a year. And worth a separate blog, frogs and toads appear like they have been transported from a different planet.

Most of the world has four seasons, but I wonder if Vivaldi lived in Baja Arizona, would the Four Seasons be the Five Seasons? If Beethoven knew the desert monsoon, would the fourth movements of his Pastorale Symphony have even more thunder and lightning?