I’ll have to tell you more about it tomorrow or Sunday. I flew up to San Jose this evening and saw the most AMAZING sunset between two layers of clouds.
Category Archives: Weather
Sleeping With The Window Open
It’s that time here in SoCal. It’s probably a coincidence that it also happened as the shift to Daylight Saving Time started, but last night it was warm enough to sleep with the window open
I understand that from Kansas City to the Carolinas to Chicago to Maine it’s snowing like hell. New York City was expecting 14″ to 18″ in the last NWS bulletin I saw this morning.
Chicago’s getting a good blast of snow also – after having the least amount of snow ever recorded in the months of January and February. Starting December 18th, O’Hare got 0.7 inches of snow total until March 11th. Normally they would have well over 24″ in that time period.
After five years of drought in California, the worst in over a hundred years, this year out of nowhere we got the wettest winter on record.
If climate change is a Chinese hoax (as our Idiot-In-Chief has stated), they’re doing a great job. If only there were a more simple theory, perhaps backed up by decades of scientific research…
Meanwhile, a week after I had the furnace going to only be a little bit frozen, it hit 90° today and we’ll be sleeping with the windows open again.
It’s so much more special that way when the raccoons howl and the skunks get spooked in the neighbor’s yard.
Filed under Weather
Deluge
I’ve seen worse. I grew up in the midwest where we had thunderstorms and tornadoes that would turn your world upside down in an instant. I’ve been in Vermont, Vrigina, Illinois, and New York where it rained harder. With lightning and thunder to boot.
We even got caught in the remnants of a hurricane once, driving from Maine to Boston at night. We literally couldn’t see twenty feet and there was so much water we wouldn’t have been able to tell if we had gone off the road into a river. That’s how you take a two hour drive and turn it into a six hour nightmare.
But for LA, this was the worst in many, many years.
I had the iPhone up against the glass to minimize any reflections from inside the office. The sound year hear is the rain hitting the window sideways in the 50 to 70 knot wind gusts.
The “best” part was feeling the big plate glass window flex with every gust. I’m sure it wasn’t really moving a couple of centimeters in each direction, but it felt like it.
You gotta love rain in LA.
Filed under Los Angeles, Video, Weather
Convective Activity
After a morning of low clouds and a bit of drizzle, it cleared out nicely at Camarillo Airport. To the north of in a band from Santa Barbara east across Ohai, Santa Paula, Santa Clarita, and down into the San Fernando Valley, the unstable air got heated, rose, started condensing into clouds, which in turn released energy, which in turn caused more condensation and clouds, which…
Nice flying at CMA – but don’t fly to the north or east in that little plane!
Santa Paula Airport (KSPZ) was over under this thunderstorm, which pretty much just parked there for several hours. NOT a good day to be flying in to or out of KSPZ!
Just before sunset, with the sun at our back setting in a clear blue sky while it was still raining over Santa Paula, physics and the optical properties of water droplets in the atmosphere took their natural course.
Someone was nice enough to leave our F6F-5 Hellcat sitting out there to look gorgeous in the sunset light along with that colorful optical illusion.
Filed under CAF, Flying, Photography, Weather
High Flying Ice
There was a stream of high-altitude ice passing by when I went out for a walk at lunch today.
The sundog was clearly visible on the right (west) side as I went out.
There was no sign of anything on the left (east) side.
But by the time I had walked around the block, the sundog to the left of the sun could be seen.
But now there was nothing to be seen on the right.
Maybe next time we’ll get to see both of them together.
Filed under Photography, Weather
You Can’t Have One Without The Other
The Universe is funny like that.
Too many of us never quite figure it out.
Today was a good day to remember that. Tomorrow will be too.
Filed under Photography, Weather
Take Time To Look Up
It was a “nose to the wheel, shoulder to the grindstone” sort of day. Working at the computer on my desk, my back is to the windows. I tend to take a glance every now and then, but today it was more “then” than “now.” Our new intern stopped by for something and said that it was beautiful out on my side of the building with the sun coming out and the clouds clearing.
She was not inaccurate.
Filed under Photography, Weather
As 2016 Departs
(click on the image to get the full-sized, 6868×3077 pixel, 11MB file)
About thirty minutes ago, the sky turned pink outside. It had been gray and rainy all afternoon and I could still hear rain hitting the skylights, but now it was like we were inside a giant, pink, neon light.
I don’t know that I consciously knew what was happening, but I grabbed my camera, an umbrella, and ran outside. (This is why I keep a cocked and ready camera sitting near the door.)
Unlike yesterday, this starts to approach being a “Noah on Mt. Ararat” class rainbow. With a little teasing while combining the five images in PhotoShop, you can see part of the outside arc of the double section in the upper right corner.
More on 2016 later…
Filed under Christmas Lights, Panorama, Photography, Weather
Signs & Portents Where You Can Find Them
We went and saw “Rogue One” (wonderful, but darker than normal for the franchise) and “La La Land” (outstanding, fun, and the opening 7-1/2 minute tracking shot musical dance number is amazing, so don’t get there late!) and then saw this after grabbing some dinner.
It might not be up there as a “Noah on Mt. Ararat” class rainbow, but I’m not going to be picky right now. Pretty is pretty and there’s way too much gloom and doom lurking about out there.
I hope that each of you found some light and beauty somewhere today. And tomorrow, too.
Filed under Movies, Photography, Weather
Not An Exact Science
As a rule, weather forecasting is pretty good these days. Your 48-hour forecast is usually about 90%+ reliable, and even 72-hours out you’ve got a pretty decent chance of being in the ballpark more often than not.
Every rule can be broken.
We’ve been watching the weather forecasts closely, since we’re getting ready to pour concrete again and we’re on a tight deadline. On Tuesday morning there was a meeting in which I specifically looked at multiple weather apps on my phone and saw 0% chance of rain today through tomorrow afternoon, a 10% chance of rain for tomorrow evening, and 0% chance of rain for the next several days after that.
Here’s the current radar:
Photo credit: National Weather Service
We’re under one of those red spots. It is freakin’ coming down in sheets and buckets.
The first sign of any change was this morning when we woke up. The local morning news guy sounded confused, saying there were light showers moving into the area that had “caught them off guard.” The prediction then was for spotty, off and on showers for a couple of hours.
Photo credit: National Weather Service
It has rained off and on all day, but about 6:00 tonight, it really started to come down. Driving home from our office Christmas party, there were whole blocks where the street flooding was so bad that, for the first time in my 45+ years of driving, I really wasn’t sure that I was going to make it through. At one point I thought I was going to be a news story tomorrow, under the headline of, “What In Hell Was He Thinking?”
Oh, and the weather forecast for the next several days? Steady rain through tomorrow morning, tapering off for about 12 hours, then on Friday from about noon on into early morning Saturday an even bigger storm moves in. Granted, we need the rain after five years of drought, but a little “head’s up!” would have been appreciated.
We’ll see. Your 48-hour forecast is usually about 90%+ reliable…
Filed under Los Angeles, Weather
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 