The Weather

Weather. Someone asked me about it. It’s been wonderful actually. When we got here the end of August it was in the mid-90’s but it didn’t feel hot. That’s because it was so hot and humid at Shelby that to finally get into a dry climate again the heat didn’t feel so bad.

My terp (interpreter) said that we’re past the hot season and are now entering the cool season. He’s not kidding. It’s getting pretty cool in the evenings and even chilly once in a while in the mornings. It’s so nice.

The day before yesterday we had a big storm come through that brought lots of rain and hail. Merrill and I were traveling back from another camp and I made sure to hit all the big mud puddles. It was great. A couple times our humvee was enveloped in mud. It was so cool.

Then yesterday another storm blew in. This one was even bigger. It rained for almost two hours and brought hail stones the size of big marbles. We were outside under a tin roof in a communications class and it got so loud that we had to move inside. Even then the pounding on the roof was incredibly loud.

We’re in a valley and where does water run when it hits the mountains? Down. There’s a dry riverbed outside our compound. We estimate that it had at least 25 feet of water raging through it. It was amazing. I don’t think the pictures will do the sight justice.

Our camp slopes slightly down so once again, the water runs downhill. But, because we’re surrounding by impenetrable walls, the water had no where to go. We had over 4 feet of water at the bottom of camp in the motor pool. Again, the pictures don’t do the sight justice.

The building I live in is on the highest point apparently as we did not have to sandbag around the doors to keep the water out.

Needless to say, it was an absolute mess. The chowhall had over a foot of water in it but to our amazement, the staff was able to get it cleaned out and serve a hot meal. We were really impressed.

So there’s my weather story. Oh, it’s supposed to start snowing in the mountains next month. Just like Utah. So if you’re ever wondering what the weather is like, just imagine Dugway or Tooeellee (sp) Utah and you’ll have a pretty good idea.


Here are some before and after the flood pictures.