Monday January 10, 2005
The Day After Tomorrow?
I think the rain has made me run out of things to talk about. More rain expected this week, after raining all weekend. It tripped my power twice this weekend—not enough to reset the clocks, but just enough to reboot my computer.
Crazy weather happenings—roads closed due to mudslides and flooding. Supposedly the Amtrack can’t go below SLO because, well, part of the track has been eaten by a sinkhole!
My boss and assorted other coworkers couldn’t get to work today because the 101 is closed above Ventura. Also myterious rumors of a tornado watch in that area.
If you look at the ocean it looks nasty—it looks like frothy dirt, and it is angrily depositing bunches of seaweed and other nasty crap onto the shoreline.
It’s like El Nino all over again—only without the fallen trees and all the newscasters speaking in hyperbole, proclaiming all of SB to be underwater. Like El Nino, it’s surprisingly warm—I’ve gone out in just a sweatshirt and not felt cold.
Horrific tsunami disasters aside, is anyone else out there experiencing crazy or unusual weather??
UPDATE: Anyone in SB county wondering if they will be able to drive anywhere should consult SB Transportation Division’s list of road closures
Posted at 11:10 AM |
I think you’re mistaken. It’s not blasted across every newspaper like it was last time, and my brief Googling only shows that the weather trends were LEANING toward and El Nino year, but that they were not quite there. They were predicting that type of stuff for Fall 2005. And if you’re going strictly by So. Cal, this is not the worst El Nino in recent memory. The one in 1997-98 was FAR worse. That one downed dozens of trees in SB, knocking into houses, cars, power lines, and there was far more flooding.
If this is indeed an El Nino year, kindly provide a link that states so in no uncertain terms.
I provide below a chart appearing in the LA times first column showing rainfall this year up to Jan. 6, second the norm for this period, and last the amounts of the ‘97/’98 El Nino.
Total through Normal through
Thursday Jan. 6 ‘97-‘98 total
Eureka 19.51 17.09 58.56
Redding 19.14 12.58 65.61
L.A. Downtown 15.68 4.32 31.01
San Francisco 12.25 7.48 47.22
L.A. Airport 11.89 4.19 27.78
San Diego 11.00 3.52 17.78
Sacramento 10.87 6.64 32.25
Long Beach 10.83 4.12 22.67
Santa Maria 8.23 4.34 32.98
Fresno 7.16 3.73 20.36
Bakersfield 3.57 2.06 14.66
Clearly this is nowhere NEAR the same levels, so whoever thinks it’s the worst in recent memory must not be over the age of 5.
on January 10, 2005 @ 12:20 PM
We are having an extreem temperature for the time of year.
Normaly it should be snowing and freezing but we are all supprised to see a 14C°.
It’s strange.. just like spring hops in.
I guess Nature is a bit mixed up.
3 | Posted by: Sofie on January 10, 2005 @ 1:13 PMIt is an el nino year. It is plastered all over the headlines — if you know where to look. Dont ever rely on the media for your news. ;)
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=el+nino&btnG=Search+News
It is not worse than the 97-98 el nino year.
5 | Posted by: Kevin on January 10, 2005 @ 1:58 PMACK, that seemed overly harsh with the over-boldness! Sorry!! I meant to only bold ONE word, not like those entire phrases. I was merely meaning to point out that being the media ignorant person that I always am, I was aware of El Nino in 97 but have heard nothing about it this year.
And hmm, ok MAYBE it’s El Nino, but every news article listed in that search has to qualify it by saying “Weak El Nino”. I guess I’m still SORTA right, because it isn’t big enough to overhype like it was back in 97.
And wow, Sofie, that seems awfully hot for January!
6 | Posted by: Jennifer on January 10, 2005 @ 2:11 PM
OK, I guess I’m definitely wrong then. And doubly sorry—I was attempted for “matter of fact” and instead came across as “RAWR HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT IT IS WORSE”. I couldn’t even figure out where in the code it was making EVERYTHING bold…it shouldn’t have.
Anyway, I admit it, I was mistaken. NOAA says so. I searched their site earlier trying to find a clear statement, but failed. Kev though provided a link to their press releases which links to the following article: NOAA ANNOUNCES THE RETURN OF EL NIŅO
Seriously though, they should like plaster it on their front page, because I didn’t think to look in the press releases and it didn’t come up when I searched for El Nino 2004 earlier this morning.
7 | Posted by: Jennifer on January 10, 2005 @ 2:27 PM
Dude, all the news sources available in California, and you pick a paper in TUCSON to quote for your information regarding a tiny town in Ventura County?!
And ok, ok, NOAA says it’s a weak El Nino, so I’ll buy it. I just find it VERY interesting that with all these rains and all these floods and mudslides that the media doesn’t call it El Nino. Look at that article—no mention of it anywhere!
10 | Posted by: Jennifer on January 11, 2005 @ 2:57 PM
again, the media is stupid. if you put in “el nino” into google news, plenty of articles come up talking about the current one. plus, my dad knows its a mild el nino year and he only gets his news from newspapers and local tv. *shrug* So someone is mentioning it.
11 | Posted by: Kevin on January 12, 2005 @ 7:14 AMHehe I get my news from neither….and yet, I still expect to hear something about it. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. ;)
Seriously though, news interruptions or word of mouth would probably be prevalent if it was a big deal. Like I haven’t watched the news but I know about La Conchita because of word of mouth and it plastered on the front page of a few sites I happened upon.
Poor El Nino—I think he needs a new name this year, since he is apparently the bastard child of whatever spawned the 97/98 El Nino!
12 | Posted by: Jennifer on January 12, 2005 @ 10:28 AM
Wow, and with less spelling errors than the Newspress! Whittier rocks!
And um, so if I can’t believe word of mouth, and I can’t believe media, who can I believe?? Especially since you are telling me things, hence word of mouth, AND sending me links to media sources! Am I not to believe you as well?? ;)
15 | Posted by: Jennifer on January 12, 2005 @ 12:24 PM
