I never fully appreciated rain until I moved to New Mexico. Needless to say, it’s dry here in the semi-desert.
How dry is it? (rimshot) It’s so dry that the weather forecasters measure precipitation in hundredths of an inch. So dry that wildfires burn tens of thousands of acres every year: A few months ago a car blew a tire, struck sparks on the pavement and started a brushfire that burned for a week. So dry that we water our gardens with drip irrigation systems that dribble water on individual plants. And everybody carries lip moisturizer and a bottle of water.
Precipitation is a routine fact of life in most places but is practically an obsession here. Every TV weather report has the latest drought statistics. Disputes over water rights have kept lawyers employed for a couple of centuries. Folks worry about the chile pepper harvest in the summer and snowfall on the ski slopes in the winter. We worry about our water bills, too.
So nobody complains when it rains. Except during Balloon Fiesta. The fiesta every October is the biggest event of its type in the world. Hundreds of hot-air balloons take to the skies in a spectacular mass ascension at dawn. The week-long event is our biggest tourist draw with 100,000 visitors who pump millions into the local economy. Albuquerque is ideal for ballooning because the wind pattern is just right and the weather is nearly always perfect.
Balloon landed next to my house
Not this year. After a relatively dry summer monsoon season (when we get most of our rain) the heavens opened during Balloon Fiesta and it rained for days. There was still plenty of ballooning – one actually landed in my neighbor’s yard – but some of the major events were rained out.
Most places would consider this an unmitigated bummer, but the rainout was greeted with mixed feelings in Albuquerque. The local newscasts followed every solemn report of event cancellation and dampened tourists with a barely suppressed smile and the comment: “but we REALLY needed the rain.”
A couple of my relatives visiting from Chicago bought VIP tickets to the fiesta, stayed at a classy hotel and left without seeing a single balloon. I commiserated with them and apologized profusely for my city’s weather. But at the same time I was thinking: “My lawn really looks great!”