Re: Where are the songs of Spring?
Posted by: Anonymous User (---.adobe.com)
Date: May 22, 2003 04:04AM
Not only the Navajo but also the Pueblo distinguish between male and female rain.
I grew up in New Mexico. The male rain in the desert southwest is unlike any I've experienced anywhere else. If you haven't lived through it, it sounds like exaggeration. It only comes in late July or early August, usually in the early afternoon, is very short and sudden, and drops an unbelievable amount of water. If you're driving on the freeway, you pull over and stop because no way can you see through your windshield, it's like having a fire hose turned on your car, and anyway it will all be over in a few minutes.
If you're in a city, 5 minutes after it starts the water will be over the curbs, at least 6 inches deep. 10 minutes after it starts the rivers will be up two to four feet from where they were before it began. (You have to understand that the standard depth for any undammed river in New Mexico except the Rio Grande is usually under 2 feet, so this means more than doubling in volume.) Then it starts to abate, and usually in 15 minutes is over until the next day. But it takes a while for the flooding to go down because the water just can't find anywhere to go that fast, and there's still more coming down from the higher ground.
Unfortunately, there is very little rain of either sort in the spring when it would be helpful. The female rains tend to come in the fall. If you want to grow anything, you irrigate.