Late May and Early June "Mini-monsoon"
Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado

by John Farley


In late May and early June, 2020, about a month before the normal arrival of the true southwestern Monsoon, an unusual weather pattern set up across the U.S. Southwest that brought areas of wetting rain to parts of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado in what is usually the driest time of year. A blocky weather pattern with systems largely stalled and the main jet stream far north, more like you would expect in July and August, result in a modest flow of moisture into the U.S. Southwest from both the Pacific/Gulf of California and the Gulf of Mexico. This afforded several days of weather photo opportunities near the end of what nationally was a very quiet May, stormwise.


May 29:

As on the previous day, storms formed over the mountainous areas of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. This storm produced locally heavy downpours and perhaps a little hail on the east slopes of the Jemez Mountains, near Los Alamos and White Rock, NM:


May 31:

A couple days later, on May 31 near Pagosa Springs, CO, I headed out with my camera and its Lightning Trigger for the first time this storm season. There wasn't a lot of lightning by the time I got set up (missed a good one about 10 seconds before I was ready, naturally), but I did manage to catch one. A little far away, but I still like the picture with the effects added by the clouds and mountains:


June 1:

This would have been the day to have been out with the Lightning Trigger, but being the first of the month, I was mainly doing things like going to banks and the post office. While I was in a slow line for a bank drive-through, strong storms formed nearby. I saw several CG bolts a mile or two away, wishing I had the lightning trigger and was not stuck in a line. Then, when the outflow wind from the storm hit, what I first thought was a dust storm kicked up. But as it turns out, it was not dust for the most part. I soon realized, as batches of it landed on my windshield, that most of it was not dust, it was pollen! Lots of little yellow particles. Then, as I drove toward town to go to the post office, I saw this. Pollen storm! Look at the yellowish haze near the middle of the picture (and contrast it with the white of the snow in the mountains). This was pollen being blown off the pines by the thunderstorm outflow as it surged to the southeast:

Later that evening, as another blast of wind arrived, we saw it blowing right off the trees in our neighborhood. Fortunately, this kind of pine pollen is not nearly as allergenic as the piņon pollen that was terrible a few weeks earlier. And we did get some wetting rain at our house from the thunderstorm that produced the pollen storm.

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