Springtime in the Rockies…

often means snow and sleet. At least that’s what we experienced on the Tuesday after Easter (March 29), the day we planned to leave for Tucson. Weather reports the night before were forecasting 18-24 inches in Ely, Nevada during the next 24-36 hours, and that was the route we usually take—Elko-Ely-Las Vegas-Kingman, AZ for the first day and on to Tucson the second day.

Tuesday morning began with no exiting Elko without snow tires or chains, neither of which my rental car was equipped with. Brian kept watching the weather maps via the internet and by 10 AM the Pequops mountain range had lifted the snow tire/chains requirement. By 10:30 AM we were backing out of our driveway and heading for Salt Lake City, UT and I -15 South—a longer route to Kingman but doable.

I wish I had pictures of the blue sky at the edge of the Salt Flats which minutes later turned into a stormy one with road surface and outlying areas covered with icy crystals at least an inch deep. And to add insult to injury, this occurred again about fifteen minutes later. Generally, Brian takes pictures of interesting weather phenomena but this time he was too busy keeping the car on the road (plus, I would have been screaming at him if he’d attempted any photography at the time).

The week prior to that trip, Elko weather had been beautiful—enough so that I brought in some of my daffodils from the front flower garden. This picture was taken before Easter.

Once we got to Tucson, their weather was lovely and visits with family and friends were delightful. We managed to leave Arizona before the thermometer hit 90 degrees and came back to Elko in lovely weather.

However, the storms do love to move in on us from the Pacific, and this most recent one finally managed to bring snow to our valley instead of rain. This is what our backyard looked like this morning (April 15). The snow is gone now but we could well see more before it’s safe to plant a garden without benefit of a greenhouse.

So for you readers who live in a much more dependable climate, you can either enjoy the “boredom” or move to a location where, if you don’t like what the weather is doing, just wait fifteen minutes.