Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts

February 6, 2010

No joy in Mudville


Some stay dry while others feel the pain: "A gas company worker digs in front of a flattened home on Manistee Drive, where the flash flood caused a gas leak." Photo by Gary Friedman for the Los Angeles Times.

It was a sucker punch: the last rainstorm was the "bad" one, they told us, and this one was supposed to be comparatively meh. Trouble was, the storm parked itself above L.A. and didn't leave until it had dumped up to 3.5 inches of rain in the foothills, or what's left of the foothills after the monster Station Fire.
[T]he damage was worst at the top of the hill in La Cañada Flintridge's Paradise Valley. The rains made good on worst-case-scenario predictions that geologists and emergency officials have been warning about since the Station fire denuded 250 square miles of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Some residents were awakened by water flooding waist-deep into their homes. Two men rescued a bedridden 86-year-old woman trapped in her room, tethered to an oxygen tank, her bed floating in the rising water.

On Manistee Drive, a white single-story home appeared submerged in several feet of dirt, looking as if a giant child had dropped the house in a sand pit.

"The one time they don't evacuate, this happens," said Justin Jesscoat, an Ocean View Boulevard resident whose parked car was swept down the street. [LAT: 'Niagara' of mud hits homes.]




More rain is expected later this week, oy. Mudpocalypse! Mudmaggedon! Meanwhile, up the hill, they're getting ready to do this all over again:

"Too much snow on the roof!!!" Photo by Rosalinde at RIMOFTHEWORLD.net.

January 25, 2010

Why the snow-removal guys couldn't find the cabin

They actually know where it is [I think] — they just couldn't get to it. There are advantages and disadvantages to being a little ways from a paved road, grasshopper. The crew will give it another shot tomorrow. More snow on the way, ay caramba. Photo by Robert Gauthier for the Los Angeles Times: one of a series you can view here.

January 24, 2010

November 13, 2009

Birds in the rain


Goldfinches gotta chow down. Note to self: do not fill feeders in the afternoon if it looks as if it might rain tonight/tomorrow. Also: get a couple of those dome thingys.

First real rain of the season. Awesome. Check out my garden:



Oh, who am I kidding [weeps]. I took that photo last weekend at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, after making out like a bandit at their annual native plant sale. I want my backyard to look like this. OK, only a bit smaller. Just give me a year or two.

August 28, 2009

Now: Sunny and 108°F [color me gone]

Lord knows it's been worse — but I didn't feel good to begin with, dammit! So I'm taking my cough, my fever and some dogs and heading up the hill.

To the west, of course, it's a nightmare right now. Hold good thoughts for all who are threatened by the wildfires, and review your own disaster preparedness plans. Stay hydrated, stay cool and please, stay safe out there.

June 18, 2008

The lawless stream


Flood plain. More photos here.

Mind-boggling photographs in the news this week.
“This is a classic struggle,” said Jerry Enzler, the executive director of the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa. “Mark Twain said it way back: Ten thousand river commissions cannot tame that lawless stream.”
The photo below was taken by Lori Mehman of Orchard, Iowa. More about the image here.

May 26, 2008

Climate change




Nothing compared to the lethal tornadoes in Minnesota and Iowa, but a real twister: check out the home video in this L.A. Times link. Our SoCal tornado only flipped a big rig and derailed a train, but it added further weirdness to one of the weirdest storm systems I've seen in a while.

A week ago SoCal's inland valleys were a sweltering 100 degrees F. Then the temps nosedived -- look at Wrightwood:


We had hail. We had rain by the buckets. Down at the farm some wheelbarrows had been left standing outside the barn, and they were filled with rainwater. There was thunder and lightning: thunder that didn't just crash and boom, but kept on rumbling for what seemed like ages. The collies have been happier.

As everyone knows, the Inland Empire always gets rain this time of year because the Orange Show Fairgrounds were built on the site of an ancient Indian burial ground. [Shut up.]

Today there are just a few clouds in the sky, but it's cold enough this morning that the pit bulls are bundled up in their faux sheepskin beds and I'm hunting for earmuffs. OMG, it's 50 F degrees on the back porch. Unreal.

Read this climate change classic: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

I'm heading to the market — if I'm not back in 15 minutes, send a dog with a flask of brandy —