And the rains keep on a'comin'

I haven't seen the news yet tonight so I'm not sure how folks in La Canada-Flintridge coped, but my impression for the most part is that despite some unusually serious weather day-after-day-after-day this week, that Southern California has had remarkably little really catastrophic damage in a place unaccustomed to dealing with severe weather. I think we've had at least an inch or more each day, and up to 3-4" in some places, and it's been accompanied by strong winds, trees being uprooted, and even a tornado.

Compared to an earthquake in Haiti it's pretty much nothing, I know, and rain is welcome after a couple of years of near-drought. But it creates situations and there has been damage. Jen called and I left early today because the power was out and wasn't expected back on until 9:00. We had dinner out and by the time we were done we got home at 7 :30 and the juice was on. So I watched the Lakers lose to Cleveland, then UCLA beat Washington in a thriller. A luxurious way to weather the storm, which is still bringing rain and some thunder as I type.

Serious SoCal weather

I realize that people in other parts of the country often view Southern Californians as weather wusses, and perhaps rightly so. We consider it downright frigid if the high for the day is below 50. What we've experienced in the last day or so, strikes me as pretty serious weather. I worked from home today because the moment it started raining Sunday evening my nose started dripping incessantly. I'm pretty sure it was just allergies, with concentrated allergens released in the first burst of rain, but Cathy did suggest I stay home today -- I did do some writing and send it.

It was more than just a bit of rain today. The Weather Service has classified a cell that came ashore from the Pacific at around Huntington Beach as a probable tornado. The tornado seems to have died out after only overturning a few cars and messing with some mobile homes, but as it came inland it turned into severe thunderstorms with high winds. Topography sheltered Elsinore from the most turbulent weather, but we still got heavy rain, sporadic serious wind and some lightning. Heavier expected Thursday. Quite fascinating.

I"m glad in many ways that it's an El Nino year and we're slated to have more rain than in most years. We've had drought-like conditions for a couple of years and this should end it. But I didn't expect it to hit us quite so violently.