It’s RAINING in SoCal

TV news helicopters hovered most of the day over submerged cars, closed freeways and threatened homes. You hear the phrase “burn scar areas” a lot on a day like today.

Weather and Hazards Data Viewer

Greetings from not so sunny SoCal. El Nino has arrived and the child is cranky.

It’s pouring as I type this. Doppler, cradled in Helaine’s arms, is wearing her Thundershirt. We had two loud crashes this morning and another few tonight. Just a few. Storms are different here.

First things first. No individual storm can be attributed to El Nino. We understand some of the process, probably not all. El Nino indicates a probability, not a certainty.

OK — back to the scary stuff.

IMAG0109If you’ve never been here you’ve got to understand there are mountains in the east and there are MOUNTAINS in the west. Much of California is steep and exquisitely beautiful. When it rains water pours off the slopes in raging torrents.

We have flash floods, mud and rock slides. Houses tumble or are buried in mud.

TV news helicopters hovered most of the day over submerged cars, closed freeways and threatened homes. You hear the phrase “burn scar areas” a lot on a day like today.

Rain is covered here the way snow is covered in the East. And this is BIG rain.

The map above shows around 1.5″ at our house. This place is freshly engineered and built. No worries.

nsm_depth_2016010605_Sierra_NevadaAs nice as this rain is, the good news is the Sierras are getting snow by the foot. They averaged five to eight feet on-the-ground before this began. Even nearby mountains saw two feet over the past few days.

Nice start. The season’s not quite half over. This is when it should be stormy.

We need the rain. But, it’s tough to see everything the water brings.

The nearly always say they’ll rebuild.

2 thoughts on “It’s RAINING in SoCal”

  1. I’ll take that “liquid sunshine” over the “white stuff”, road salt and cold temps anytime! Although, so far this winter, we’ve managed to avoid all of that!

  2. Geoff, I think you mean “Rain is covered here the way snow is covered in the (North)East: Normally, there is no snow in winter in the lower Eastern states like Florida, GA, SC…etc.

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