The Season of Rainbows

I've told you in the past about the weather here and how common rainbows sometimes are. Yesterday reminded me of that fact and suggested to me that I try to document what it's like to live here during what I call, 'The Season of Rainbows.' 

Yesterday was as nice a day as I could ever imagine. It felt like a fall day, with just the slightest hint of chill in the air, but with a very comfortable sun. Not a blistering atomic furnace up there, like it can sometimes be in mid summer, but a friend who would throw warming rays around my shoulders whenever I came out of the shadows. The temperature was about 65 F. 

But this is the season of rainbows. And rainbows are a product of rain events, which are, during this time of year, amazingly (to me anyway) frequent. 

When I was a kid, we would generally see a rainbow after it rained. My experience here has been that rainbows generally precede the cloudburst that generates it.  When I'm walking here and spot a rainbow somewhere nearby, I know that I had better get ready to unfurl my mini-umbrella. That it may soon be bucketing down on me.  

Yesterday was June 8th, 2020.  All of the rainbows I'm going to show you are from separate storms. Each of these storms was relatively small, and fast moving and they seem to push a rainbow out ahead of them. I sometimes have imagined the storm as an old-time steam locomotive and the rainbow is the 'cow-catcher' in front.  

I went shopping in the morning and since I was at one point, on the far side of Henderson from where we live, I was able to see rainbows from several different squalls that passed over a wide swath of the area. Each of the following pictures is of a different downpour. 

In the afternoon, I stayed home and watched the skies over the Waitakere Range.  That's to the west of us and is the direction from which all these storms come.  

These next shots are of a couple of storms that came through between about 1 and 3:30 pm.

I took all these shots from in front of our house. What doesn't show in the photos is how quickly they come and go.  

 There's a little shower passing by. You get rainbow before, during and after this little baby storm. 

 Here comes a much bigger one. This is looking south west.

 This is looking west, north west. Same storm as the last photo. This one is going to DUMP. 

This is a photo of a tower in the Waitakere Range that is about 5 miles due west from our house. I'll show you the same tower when the squalls hit...

 Just a little bit of rainbow is ahead of this big one.

And there is a picture of the tower during the rain. It's really coming down, but the rain is not quite to us yet. You can see the foliage in the foreground has sun on it yet and is not obscured by rain. I'm going inside before my camera gets wet.  


And then it's gone and the skies are blue until......

...another one appears right on the heels of the last.

This one has a little more rainbow. It's getting closer fast. Can you imagine that as a speeding steam locomative?

 Again, I use the tower as a gauge of how much rain is falling. This downpour is not quite as intense.

 Here's one more shot of it coming over. Sun is evident on the fence across the street. This squall is smaller than the last one and dumps it's rain more to my left. 

 It's the next morning and I'm in Te Atatu North picking olives. (more about that in the next post) 
It's the first morning of unrestricted travel after Covid. Looks like we are going to have a day much like yesterday.  
I hope you have enjoyed this short look at our season of rainbows. 

-djf

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Update on Name the Tug Contest.

My name of Sparky WON!  However, because at least one other person also submitted the name, a drawing was held to choose the recipient of the $1,000 gift card, and I was not selected.  I'm pleased that when I eventually see the tug with Sparky painted on it, I'll know that I helped name it.  That's a big win.  Who'd have thought?