The Weather Thread

Old men talking weather, remembered from the 1950s: "Never used to have this kind of weather. If it's not hot it's cold, if it's not cold it's hot. It's them atom bomb tests, I'm tellin' ya!" Weather remains uncertain, but people are often certain of its causes.

BTW upper 70s (Fahrenheit) and sunny here for the next few days. Where's that El Nino they promised us?

Most probably know this -- in the US, hurricanes used to be given women's names only. A few years back this was evidently deemed sexist, so now women's and men's names alternate. The US military has just been ordered to completely remove any restrictions on women in combat. "OK men...erm, men and women...we'll bivouac here. Sergeant, detail some troops to dig a latrine. No, make that two latrines..."

Most of the weather news where I live is about weather that hasn't happened yet! We have been having a severe multi-year drought caused by too little rain, too many people, or both. Now there is a large El Nino weather event forming, a distribution of warm water temperatures nearby in the equatorial region. In the past, this has often resulted in abnormally heavy rains over the winter.

So -- that's all the talk because the actual weather so far isn't very exciting. Time will tell.

A wet week in Southern California! Well, this much rain wouldn't be "too wet" in many places, but here it's the wettest week in several years. Our promised El Nino weather pattern seems to have arrived. And about time. The water level in Folsom Reservoir up north has risen 28 feet in the last four weeks, and the Sierra snowpack, on which California depends for year-round water, was well above normal even before this week's rains.

Where I live, the snow stays where it's supposed to be. Up in the ski resorts.

Today, on the US East Coast: "Record high in Newark, NJ, for this date as temperature reaches 82 degrees; earliest it has ever reached 80 degrees in city." Meanwhile, loads of rain and flooding in the far South, and temperatures in the 70s and sunny where I am. But expecting showers this weekend and, further north in California, up to six inches of rain and five feet of new snow in the mountains.

Oh, some tornados too. Q: Why is a tornado in Alabama like a divorce in Arkansas? A: Somebody's gonna lose a trailer.

Still cool in SoCal, low 70s for a while now, no air con required. Even some light showers at night! The won't last all summer, unfortunately.

Close to 100 F today, but the humidity was low. Into the low 80s by Monday, we are told. Not too bad here.

A hot, wet summer for much of the US continues. From the National Weather Service: "Copious moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will bring several rounds of heavy rain to the central Gulf Coast states through the weekend, and significant flash flooding is possible. Additional heavy rain chances will extend from southwest TX all the way to northern New England on Saturday. By Sunday, the mid-Miss. Valley will see a significant threat of flash flooding."

Kontrapunctus said:

California is being scorched by a heat wave. I've lost track of how many 100F or higher we've had in the last month. At the moment it's a comparatively chilly 98...

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Not bad in Socal. Mostly in the low 80s, low humidity. Heat wave tomorrow at 90, then back to the 80s. The central valley in California has really hot summers, lots of days over a hundred. I used to live in Sacramento and saw as high as 114F. Sacramento's motto: "But it's a dry heat." Which is true.

Here, it was 91F today. Heat wave! But now, back to the low 80s. Our summer is quite mild, although things are burning up with great vigor to the northeast of where we are. Yes, it's been a bit dry, and the "official" fire season is still a month off.

We're in a long stretch of ~80F highs, very pleasant with sea breezes. Below normal by a bit. Little to complain about here.

Our overall mild summer continues in SoCal. Temps in the high 70s F for the next week, onshore breezes, moderate humidity. I'm feeling lucky.

Today they're forecasting 4 inches of rain on Friday for our rather arid location down here in SoCal. I've never seen a forecast like that! It's about a third of our annual average rainfall, and we've already passed that.

Maybe this will mean less rain up north and help address the dicey situation at the Oroville Dam.

It's been showering all morning with blustery winds. The radar shows the main storm front about an hour away, moving directly east towards us. We may get half a year's worth of rain out of this one! Just hope we don't lose power -- Laguna Beach already has.

OK, the deluge is ended. We have about 2" with showers, some heavy, forecast through tomorrow. Power is still on. Lots of freeways flooded, some people still trying to get home after work.

Big winter storm about to hit the northeast coast. On the Internet, everybody's talking about how unusual the weather is. I often read it's due to global warming.

Of course the weather has always been weird, always will be. I remember as a kid hearing the big people talk: "Ain't never seen weather like this. It's them atom bomb tests, I tell ya!"

Probably not too many people remember those strange days.