No Dust Devils, Darn It!

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Snap a picture of wind. Naturally, it's difficult to get a picture of the wind itself, being that air is generally transparent. however, it's easier to get a picture of how the wind is affecting other things: hair, flags, kites, so on and so forth.

I have no blowing hair pictures for you, no kites, and I choose not to go with flags. I actually did take a flag picture tonight, just as the wind dropped; but really, even though it was a bit windy after work there were no good photographic opportunities. So this is a survey of what's currently on my hard drive, cross-checked against past blog entries to avoid reruns. You won't be seeing the windblown Niagara Falls icicles again tonight unless you Google for them. Nothing I'm posting is less than 10 months old, nor more than 20 months old.

This first shot is pretty much a typical parking lot monsoon storm picture. Check out the palm trees in the middle; they'll tell you the wind's direction that afternoon.

And this one, obviously, is after a storm. It was wind, and not so much the rain, that brought down these palm branches and bits of bark.


This is from my favorite sequence of monsoon pictures ever, and the only halfway decent one in the series that I haven't posted at least once before. Check out the whitewater rapids in the street! St. Michael's, August, 2005.

This wash next to Fuddrucker's on Speedway is full of water, which is fairly unusual in itself. But what makes it interesting is the way the wind is blowing ripples on its surface.

And this is as close as I found to the traditional evidence of wind in Arizona: a dust devil. A dust devil is basically a mini whirlwind of dust or dirt, spiraling into the air. They turn up fairly often on the freeway between Tucson and Phoenix, but not usually close enough to be easily photographed. Here instead is a more generalized dust storm, covering a huge part of the north side of Tucson. June, 2006.

Best I can do for tonight. Tomorrow: my Round Robin Photo Challenges 2nd Anniversary entry! And no, I haven't a clue yet what I'll be posting for it. More fun for me that way!

Karen