When Monsoons Arrive

Monsoon Storm Approaches, Lucknow, India (credit: Wikicommons)

When a monsoon arrives, the annual weather event often announces its pending appearance as a wall of menacing clouds on the horizon. In South Asia, monsoon rains restore Himalayan snowpacks and provide the water necessary to sustain rice paddies and regional agricultural production. The storms also produce pulses of rain that arrive in torrential bursts. Such was the case of a micro-burst experienced in southern Arizona as a recent monsoon arrived. The downpour unlikely recharged any mountain snows or watered any dry fields but only flooded off into desert canyons and arroyos in flash-flood volumes. The dark clouds were impressive and appeared like a portent of an atomic blast. You wouldn't want to be standing at 'ground zero' when this downpour happened.

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