While rain varies around the Santa Fe area, we all find it hard to track and remember. This page is an attempt to log rainfall at my home, at 7400 feet about five miles southeast of the Santa Fe Plaza in the foot hills. I will be marking it by date and amount. I will also mark dates and nots of other unusual weather events such as hail,

snow, severe wind, unseasonal frosts and heat waves. I hope that over time, the patterns of these recordings will be interesting and tell us something about how to care for our gardens. After all, what is more interesting to talk about than the weather?

May 7, total rain for three days: .7

Night of May 9th, forecasted lows of 33 in Santa Fe. Cold and windy all day. Kind of a low letdown from the amazing warm weather we have had.

Morning of May 10. Mother’s day. Reality check. The nearest weather station said it hit a low of 29 degrees this morning at 6 am. My plant agree. Fortunately most of them were covered. The wind blew the garbage bag off of one pot and the geranium croaked. The snaps, petunias and a few other things survived. Probably because the patio they live on is facing due east, so the morning sun came in.

For gardens very close to downtown Santa Fe, the verdict is 31 degrees for this morning. For those of you that don’t know, that means that everything is pretty much ok. I took a drive to town this afternoon to check on the plantings that we had done around town and was relatively relieved, but yes, it was obvious that it had frozen. If you planted some tender things like sweet potato vines, you might need to replace a few. Fortunately, the frost was brief and most plants can handle that. I remember many years when late frost came in that were much more drastic. We had to cover a lot and still lost a lot… So, is it over? Are we in the clear? Well, tonight will be better and the week looks good.

May 17, rain gauge says 1 inch in the past week. We still are seeing clouds and cool weather, but luckily no major frosts. We’ve been on our toes.

May 19. Everyone said they thought their houses would blow away last night and then wash away. I am glad to report 1.25 inches in the rain gauge. I am reporting a sunny 60 degrees at noon today, after spending the morning in a sweater. The plants are liking the moisture, but holding off for some warm weather to push forward.