Brief rays of light

The President's Day Weekend Storm hit as predicted yesterday and it rained off and on most all day.  Sometimes it rained really hard.  The Lake Montezuma NWS thingie says we eeked up to 51 yesterday but it felt like the 40's all day long.  By campfire time it was still raining and felt downright cold.  I walked out to the ramada to retrieve a beverage box and, gee, I could see light on the western horizon.  I had no plans for a campfire last night as it seemed to be a "hunker down" evening.  However, when I saw the light, so to speak, it dawned on me that I would be a card-carrying wimp if I didn't rustle up a fire.  Without further ado, we had some flames flickering in no time at all.  The three photos pretty much sum up the short-loved experience.  Note the dusting of snow on the Mogollon Rim in the second photo below the large one. (You can click on any little one to see the large version.)

It was 42 degrees when I decided to build the fire and it rallied to 47 before falling back.  The sun put on a short show through its western window and then faded completely to gray.  I had two cameras ready for what i expected to be an extended light show.  Nothing.  As soon as the sun winked out, the party was over.  It was just me and the small fire.  I stayed until the flames turned to glowing coals and then called it a night well after dark.  Since the wind and rain had both laid down, it was actually quite a nice evening despite the temp falling to 39 by the time I went inside.

This type of storm is a classic Spring Storm.  They aren't the bitter cold and long length of a true winter storm.  They are generally short duration, high intensity storms.  This is the kind of storm one would generally expect in March but here it is a month early.  It leads me to speculate that spring is coming about one month early, too.  Afterall, tomorrow is the 21st of Feb. and that's precisely a month before the first official day of spring.