Tropical Storm Hilary Update

We dodged a bullet in our portion of the Las Vegas Valley in regards to what is now Tropical Storm Hilary as it only gave us us a glancing blow. Yesterday around 8:32PM a short-lived thunderstorm hit us and that was that. However, the residents on Mt. Charleston (located in the Spring Mountains bordering the western edge of the Las Vegas Valley) weren't so fortunate. This quote is from Kevin Janison, a local meteorologist with KTNV Channel 13 News:

On Mt. Charleston: Lee Canyon has received over 8” of rain, Kyle Canyon received more than 6.5.” Clark County just released this:

#Hilary Update: The old town area in Mt Charleston has substantial flooding as does rainbow subdivision. Residents are sheltering in place. State route 157, and SR 158 at SR 157 is shut down, and the power is currently off. #Nevada National Guard is en route to assist. A boil water order has been issued. A shelter location for residents is at 2755 Kyle Canyon Road (the hotel).

At the moment I don't know how the south end of the Valley fared.

Here's a pic taken by Bettina shortly before the storm hit us. Opa Fritz

Brrrr - Snow in Las Vegas!

It's been a windy, cold, rainy couple of days here in Vegas with more to come. Some areas got snow on the Valley floor but in our neck of the cactus, though Bettina thinks we may have had some graupel. Bettina captured these pics of the Sheep Mountain Range just to the north of us. Brrrr, I get cold just looking at these LOL Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Vegas Valley Big Sky Pics - Dust In The Wind: The Sahara Dust Storm and Mahogany Grove Fire

Unless you've been living in a bubble, you've may at least heard of the huge dust storm or cloud blowing from the Sahara and affecting nearly all of North America. While Nevada is on the far west fringe of that dust cloud we're still seeing it's effects in hazy sky's and health alerts for people with respiratory problems. BUT, as if that wasn't enough, we now have to conted with...

...The Mahogany Grove Fire! Named after the Mahogany Grove Campground up on Mount Charleston, the blaze has burned more than 5000 acres up on the mountain. We first learned of it by stickin' our head out the back door and seeing and eerie darkish sky coming from the direction of Mount Charleston. By sunset it was providing Bettina with some awesome photo ops, but later in the eveing we learned of evacuations for those living up there! For them it is not a photo op and we hope all are safe - there's enough missery in the world without having to contend with this.  Pictures by Bettina. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

****UPDATE****

Due to more accurate mapping, the fire has been downsized from 5000+ acres to 3000+ acres

5:01PM

At this point, from our vantage point it looked like a structure fire across the Valley

By 7:30PM it was clear it wasn't a structure fire

8:26PM

8:29PM

8:45PM

8:51PM

8:56PM

8:54PM

Weird Pre-Earthquake Photo by Bettina

I've been meaning to post this for the past several days. This photo was taken on 2 July, just two days before the Ridgecrest earthquakes. The same day of the solar eclipse.  Now, here's the deal: Bettina takes a lot of photos. Let me say that again: Bettina takes A LOT of photos!!! And I have never seen one turn out like this!! I hate speculation because it's futile to waste time coming up with a gazillion probable ideas of why something happened the way it did, but this one time I'm scratching my head wondering if she caught  Mother Earth sending off signals of an event to come?? Or just a fluke of the camera. 6-of-one / half-a-dozen of the other.

Here's my facebook post for July 4th:
"10:35AM: We just had an earth tremor. I was sitting on the couch with the grandbaby and felt the couch sway. I was looking at her Barbie Dreanhouse (which is in the living room) and could see parts of it shaking. I got up and stood by the doorway and could still feel the house move a little."

Soooo, along with earthquake in the morning and the spectacular illegal fireworks display taking place all around our house by the Hoodsters here in Da Hood during the evening we had one heck of a time!

On July 5th I posted this on fb:
8:20PM strong aftershock whole house shaking

What a weekend! :-)

Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Super Everything Moon and Other Cool Pics by Bettina

I meant to post these last week but...Anywho. The Super Bloody Wolf Eclipse Moon (referred to by several people as 'The Everything Moon') last week was a real bear to photograph here in the Las Vegas Valley as we had overcast skies, but Bettina did manage to get some shots as the clouds would clear every so often. With the clouds came some nice opportunities for pic sky pics. It was also pretty cold here in the Valley (for Las Vegas that is) with temps at around 32°F waking up in the morning and that meant snow in the mountains. Mt Charleston was blanketed with snow as you can see in Bettina's pic. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Vegas Valley Big Sky Pics by Bettina

Here's some photos Bettina has taken recently and are some of my personal favorites. Although she still takes many photos, being busy with the grand baby and working on the photos (sorting, editing, Photoshopping at times, etc) takes time and she doesn't actually feel like going into Blogger to post - so that leaves me to do it :-) Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

27 Jul 2018

28 Jul 2018

30 Jul 2018

31 Jul 2018

 

3 Aug 2018

5 Aug 2018

Monsoon Skies

Bettina has been taking some great photos but just hasn't wanted to blog them, finding it easier to just post on facebook. I'd love to post more of her work but there's very little time to do my own photos but I couldn't pass up this opportunity to share some pics and video that she took a couple of days ago. We are in the midst of the Monsoon season here in the American Southwest and when the atmosphere gets really juiced we have some wonderful vistas - all right outside our door. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Las Vegas,Nevada 25 December 2015 Special Christmas Moon ,Snow in the Mountains& Weather Fotos

Las Vegas , NV 25 December 2015 Enjoy Christmas Moon Special Photos by Bettina Berg Greetings from Bettina Oma & Fritz Opa :)