Clouds over the Amazon

A very common comment heard these days in Santarém is "... it never rains anymore." And it's true! I've been moaning and groaning about the lack of rain for a long time because our forest reserve took on the appearance of a dustbowl in 2005, and close to it, in 2006. As mentioned in an earlier blog entry, we went four months without any significant rain during the latter part of 2005, and here we are well into January of 2007 and we continue to water plants and young trees. I should alert the readers that the drought is more common to this region of Santarém. It has been raining for some weeks further down the Santarém-Cuiabá Highway. It rains almost every day in Belém. Manaus has had its share of rain. In other parts of Brazil, for example Goiania, it has rained almost every day. At this moment many cities in Brazil are flooded because a cold front has moved in from Argentina. The weather pattern holds here in Santarém. I took this picture of clouds moving over an area close to the Bosque this morning. Not a drop of rain fell. Easterly trade winds steal them away.