Our monsoons are my favorite weather season - towering afternoon thunderstorms, spectacular lightning shows, and a sort of lottery every day: will it rain here?

The typical monsoon onset is the first week of July, but we've got what seems to be a monsoon pattern setting up already, with moisture streaming into the state and thermals in place to loft it into the air. I got hammered by a spectacular thunderstorm Tuesday afternoon up in the mountains of southern New Mexico, so unexpected (by me at least - it's still June!) that I had left my raincoat in my hotel room. Later that afternoon day, Lissa called and took the phone out to the front porch of our house so I could hear the thunder: Albuquerque got rain too.

It was a good trip down south. I love driving the deserts of New Mexico, big expanses of creosote bush valleys framed by mountains left bare by the arid climate so you can see their bones.