weather or not

Weather must be on a short news cycle.

Three days ago in raindrops keep falling on my -- well, you know, I remarked on the unusual weather cycle we have been having.  Three named storms went tearing through the eastern Pacific -- one after the other -- in June.  Then nothing.

Carlos rushed past us out at sea, and gave us a nice bit of rain in mid-June.  But that has been it.  Other than a few sprinkles to tease us into remembering what we are not getting.  Interestingly, a few nights ago, we had a sprinkles here, but a reader in Manzanillo and some friends who live at the base of the local mountains, reported a downpour.

Maybe there is truth in being careful about our wishes.  When I published my "where are the storms" piece last Thursday, a storm was starting to take shape off of the west coast of Guatemala.  It is now on the move in its new guise as Tropical Storm Dolores, with 45 mph winds.

Those horned red circles that show up on the National Hurricane Center's map have a way of catching my attention.  That is, until I dig further to see the predicted cone for the storm.

Just like the vast majority of storms that form off of Mexico's Pacific coast, this one appears to be headed on a course that will not give much alarm to landlubbers of the non-hysterical variety.  But I would not want to be in a boat at sea when it passes by.

If you look closely, the hurricane center has hedged its bets by issuing a tropical storm warning for the coast both north and south of us.  But those warnings are almost the equivalent of the American State Department's travel advisories for Mexico.  Much wailing and wearing of sack cloth, with very little practical advice -- other than "be afraid."

Looking at the map, I just realized if I had not wandered over to that page, I would have no idea there was an active tropical storm warning.  We have surf danger flags here, but no weather warning flags -- as far as I know. 

And even though a very expensive tsunami waning system was installed in Jalisco six years ago, I do not know if was ever intended for other broader warnings.  In fact, I am not certain if it is even still in operation.

If we are fortunate, we will get some rain.  If not, we will simply have to wait for another storm of some sort to blow through and dampen down our humidity.

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I finished this piece around 6 in the afternoon yesterday.  To prove just how fickle the weather can be, after this definitive work on the weather, one of our regular summer storms rolled in.

Not really "regular" because the best it could do is offer a cloudburst of a few minutes.  But that would good enough to cause the people at the taco stand tables in the street to abandon their territory for higher territory inside.

The water in the street was high enough that I had trouble finding a safe path back home.  I ran into the house and grabbed my camera to capture how deep the water was.

In the five minutes I was gone, the water had headed toward the lagoon.  I caugt the tail end of it, turning topes into weirs.

May we have more like it.