🌵 Mondays with Morales: Tucson's Wild Weekend 🌪️
The Ides of July, 2024: Tucson Tornadoes, Trump’s add-Vance, Author of “Hillybilly Elegy,” Climate Change and Celebrity Deaths
Buenas tardes, mi gente.
This week's "Mondays with Morales" is coming to you a little later than usual, thanks to the wild weekend we just experienced here in the Old Pueblo. Your boy barely got his WiFi back after last night's historic hailstorm with a tornado warning and the National Weather Service hollering about "DISASTROUS 80 mph winds."
And disastrous they were.
This morning, a little cruise around Northwest Tucson showed roads filled with downed mesquites and palo verdes, single-handedly undoing any progress made by the Tucson Mayor's "million trees" plan. Mother Nature said, "Not today, señor."
But before we even get to the storm, let's recap the craziness that was this weekend. We lost some icons - Richard Simmons, Dr. Ruth, and Shannon Dougherty all left this earthly plane. Descansen en paz.
🇺🇸 Trump's Tumultuous Weekend
Then there was the whole situation with Donald Trump. Apparently there was an assassination attempt on Saturday? Details are still sketchy, but word is he might have just been cut by some glass.
Either way, the RNC kicked off today and guess who el Trumpo picked as his running mate?
None other than JD Vance, the "Hillbilly Elegy" guy who made his millions from PayPal just like Elon Musk. Speaking of Musk, he just endorsed Trump this weekend after the alleged assassination attempt.
The rich stick together, no?
The Hailstorm from Hell 🌨️
But all that got overshadowed by Sunday evening's hailstorm from hell.
Around 5:30 pm, winds that felt like a hurricane or tornado came whipping through, officially clocking in the mid-70s mph in the Tucson Mountains.
Hail pelted down, threatening to break windows. Power was flickering on and off like a strobe light at a quinceañera.
After the rain stopped, it was like a scene out of a disaster movie.
Flooded streets, freezing water with ice still in the plant pots (at least the ones that didn't get blown over), roofs ripped off, and the AutoZone on Prince Rd with a wall completely knocked down.
This was the scariest storm this native Southern Arizona writer can remember, and even the experts are saying it was one of the most intense in decades.
🌡️ The Climate Change Reality Check
And why did this happen? Two words: Climate Change. We're experiencing it firsthand, mi gente. It's not just about "global warming."
It's an endless spiral - temperature goes up, AC units work harder to cool things down, using more fossil fuels, putting more CO2 in the air, making things hotter, requiring more AC.
Rinse and repeat.
🌍 The Inequality of Life
If nothing else, the storm took our minds off the weekend news.
We were going to focus on Trump's maybe-maybe-not assassination attempt, the passing of Richard Simmons, Dr. Ruth, and Shannon Dougherty and how news headlines had the stories in more or less that order.
But beneath all that was the headline that over 90 Palestinians were killed in Gaza that day.
It's a stark reminder that not all lives seem to matter equally in this world. The poorer and browner your skin, the less your life seems to be valued.
🍃 Mother Nature's Wake-Up Call
But Mother Nature has a way of refocusing priorities.
The strong breath of the winds, the water from the sky - frozen and liquid, the mud-filled streets, fallen trees, and the fire that burns to power the ACs that dehumidify our homes in the Sonoran Desert after a storm.
We can't ignore the Four Elements in the end. That's why we should continue to listen to the lessons from our elders.
This is your compa Morales, signing off until next Monday. Stay safe out there, Tucson. And let's all try to do our part to take care of Mother Earth before she decides to take care of us. ¡Hasta la próxima!