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Dagny's Desk

Tag Archives: arizona

Willow Lake in Drought

29 Sunday Nov 2020

Posted by Dagny Gromer in Misc.

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Tags

arizona, drought, prescott az, willow lake

We are having extreme and severe drought in much of Arizona. On 11/28/2020 I was at Willow Lake in Prescott, Az photographing wild birds. I took these iPhone photos of the lake itself, or should I say the lake as a shadow of itself. This year the summer rains, which we ‘zonies call the monsoons, failed. As of today we have gone over 100 days with no measurable rainfall – our state record is 160 days.

This area is generally a shallow lake. It is the area of Willow Lake that is just north of the cottonwood trail and across Willow Creek Rd from Embry-Riddle University. The deeper part of the lake which is near Rt 89 still has open water.

willow_lake_no_water_20201128_102
willow_lake_no_water_20201128_100

Valentine’s Day is Arizona Statehood Day

14 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by Dagny Gromer in az

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Tags

arizona, Arizona statehood day, Valentine's day

From the Prescott Daily Courier:

1. Arizona turns 105 years-old this year

2. It took Arizona 56 years to gain statehood

3. Congress wanted to combine Arizona and New Mexico and admit it as one state, but people living in the territory of Arizona voted against it 16,265 to 3,141

4. Arizona officially became a state on Feb. 14, 1912

5. Which also happens to be Valentine’s Day

6. And Oregon’s birthday

7. President William Howard Taft signed Arizona into statehood

8. Arizona’s first governor, George W. P. Hunt was present for the signing in Washington D.C.

9. Arizona only had 200,000 residents at the time of statehood

10. Arizona was the 48th territory to become a state, making it one of the youngest states in our country’s history

link: http://www.dcourier.com/news/2017/feb/14/10-things-about-arizona-statehood-day-feb-14-1912/

 

High Desert Landscape

31 Sunday May 2015

Posted by Dagny Gromer in az, sony a6000

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Tags

arizona, high desert, landscape

Highway Through Desert

Taken though the windshield of a car going north on I-17. You can see almost forever. This is in the high desert north of Phoenix Az.

Prescott Internet, 911, Telecom Back in Service

25 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by Dagny Gromer in az

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arizona, az, internet outage

Our internet, 911, some bankings, ATM’s, some telephones were offline for around 7 hours today. Much of northern Az was affected including Prescott, Flagstaff, Cottonwood. The cause was intentional sabotage. A fiber optic cable that is inside a tunnel in far north Phoenix was cut, and that is the only connection. Just as a major wreck on I-17 can halt most vehicular traffic in northern and central Az, this halted most data traffic. The culprit has yet to be identified. Vandal? Criminal? Terrorist?

Here’s the latest news article I can find: http://news.yahoo.com/outage-halts-internet-cell-northern-arizona-230621745.html

To us it was a minor nuisance. We (thankfully) did not need to call 911. We did not need to use an ATM or bank services. I went to a couple of stores for small purchases but I had enough cash on hand. Our Verizon phones functioned, with 4G internet access and text messaging working.

Some thoughts on this outage:

1. The telecom system was designed for efficiency, not reliability. One fiber optic link is more efficient than 2, nice until that one is not in service for an extended time. That cable is a single point of failure. There is no backup, no redundancy – these are costly and thus inefficient.

2. It is amazingly easy for someone with bad intentions and a little knowledge to take down a major utility used by many people and businesses with a few hand tools.

3. This is what a systemic failure cascade looks like, in real time.

Phoenix Area Residents Starting to Use Air Conditioners

22 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by Dagny Gromer in az, weather

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

arizona, phoenix, prescott, weather

If you live in the northeast or upper mid-west, where things are buried in snow, you may think this is insane. But Phoenix area residents are starting to turn on air conditioners.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — With temperatures in the 80s, Valley residents have been turning on their air conditioners early.

This is only the beginning, and we all know the inevitable is coming. Being prepared for the heat is the key to comfort and less hassle when the temperatures reach their threshold.

link

The linked article goes onto discuss maintenance tasks for a/c.

Here at 5500 feet above sea level in the Prescott, Az mountains we are not using a/c. We are still running our furnace at night. It has been abnormally warm in the daytime hours here, but no a/c is needed.

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