During the work-week, I am a teacher...
...and so, yesterday in Tucson, when the rain began to change over to snow, I just had to let my students go outside. For this particular young woman--originally from Africa--it was the first time she'd ever seen the white stuff falling from the sky:
Snow in Tucson is a rare treat; the last time kids in this desert city enjoyed it was six years ago, before I moved here.
As it began to accumulate, the only sane and humane thing for me to do was to let them go outside and have a snowball fight:
By mid-afternoon, the clouds had begun to lift;
I went for a hike in Sabino Canyon after work--
the lower-elevation snow was melting quickly...
...but then the clouds began to roll back in...
...and by dinner-time, it was snowing--AND sticking--again.
It snowed for most of the evening.
So, this morning, I got up early and drove out to Saguaro National Park East, (about a 15 minute drive from where we live), hoping that if I got there before the sun came up, I'd beat the melting.
I got my wish.
For years, I've wanted to see the rare spectacle of a snow-covered saguaro-forest...
You might get snow down in the Tucson basin, oh, maybe once a decade or so. The mountains get blanketed several times each winter, but it's rare that the snow-line drops below three- or four-thousand feet...
Frosted ocotillos looking so wintry...
...but look closely: you'll see the new spring leaf-buds under the snow:
As soon as the sun rose over the ridge of the Rincon Mountains,
I could hear the drip-drip-drip of the melting begin...
By mid-day, the blanket of white was a memory...
So ephemeral, snow in the desert...
Next time--when?
It might be years from now.
By then, who knows what mobile photography will be like?
[For more snow-in-the-desert-photos (non-iphone),
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