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The High Desert Ledger

Field notes on water, land, weather and work across the American Southwest

SK 2 records · Latest record

Sky and seasons

Drought, monsoon, dust, heat and cold in the high desert: how the seasons arrive, what they do to roads, roofs, gardens and herds, and how to read a forecast for this country.

SK-002SK-001

A closed wooden ranch gate across a dirt road running straight through a sagebrush flat toward red mesas under a wide, pale desert sky, low sun casting long shadows from the gate and fence posts.
Plate SK-002 The sky over a valley like this one changes its mind every June, and the ground has to answer for it.

The tally of the slice

2The rack
  1. A closed wooden ranch gate across a dirt road running straight through a sagebrush flat toward red mesas under a wide, pale desert sky, low sun casting long shadows from the gate and fence posts.
    SK-002

    How the Southwest Monsoon Season Actually Arrives

    The Southwest monsoon is not a single storm but a seasonal flip in wind direction, running mid-June through September, that turns dry washes into flood hazards within minutes.

    Particulars
    Sky and seasons · 772 words · 3 sources
    Caveat
    this record cites only weather.gov

  2. A thick adobe wall at the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, late afternoon sun raking across the mud plaster, a wooden canale projecting through the parapet above, shot from the sidewalk at an angle that shows the depth of a doorway reveal.
    SK-001

    Adobe Walls: Mass Against Sun and Frost

    Thick adobe walls hold heat and cold, and flat earthen roofs shed the monsoon. A look at how Santa Fe's old buildings answer sun, frost and rain.

    Particulars
    Sky and seasons · 1215 words · 1 source
    Caveat
    this record cites only nps.gov