Monsoon Season

New Orleans, LA is remembering 20 years since Hurricane Katrina.
Celebrating. Commemorating.

I find myself in Twentynine Palms, CA, experiencing my first monsoon season.
Places of great polarity.
Swamp versus Desert.
The laws of nature.
Opposite. Inverted.

New Orleans is 100% humidity. Add 100º heat and you are quite literally boiling alive.
It rains everyday in the summer.
Sometimes for minutes. Sometimes for hours. Days even.

Twentynine Palms, CA: I’ve been told this summer was very mild.
Heat only reaching 111º in August.
August 2024, it reached 118º.

The dry air with the oppressive heat dehydrates you like jerked meat.
Electrolytes, water, and ideally a cavernous, cool space are necessities.
The sun is a laser beam of radiation.
The sand reflects the light and turns your eyeballs into raisins.
Proper eye protect is also required.

Your physical limits are clearly defined in the heat.
You must obey these limits or suffer terribly from heat exhaustion and dehydration.

The recent monsoon brought torrential rain upon downtown Twentynine.
It rained 1.5” quickly and caused flash flooding.

Enjoy sunsets set through the monsoon clouds.