Desert Thunderheads

Each summer I marvel at the beautiful thunderheads and other clouds we get here on the desert. They come up almost every afternoon. On rare occasions they turn very dark, almost black, spit out lightning bolts and if we are really lucky we get a few minutes of a downpour of rain. The kind the Navajo Indians call 'male rains'. The kind that last only a few minutes but can cause flashfloods that do a lot of damage to the land, make new arroyos and, and cause a few deaths when people don't pay attention and try to cross deep water in ditches. Mostly we get 'female rain'. The light rains that are mostly just a few sprinkles.