Viene la Tormenta!

An unseasonable storm's a-coming, forecast to dump a couple of inches of rain in the area in just one day. Winds up to 60mph gusts. All this is traced back to the typhoon that hit Japan hard less than a week ago. The worst of this storm will occur around 2:00pm PDT on Tuesday, 10/13/2009 and expected to leave quickly, tapering off by Wednesday afternoon or evening.

Hoping to get through this unscathed.

Locusts Too?

Over 1,000 fires burned in California. An overnight blizzard in Denver this past July (or was that August?). Disappearing glaciers and migrating species. The southeast and gulf coast hit by a barrage of hurricanes. Flooding. Tsunamis. Is there a message in this somewhere?

Vienna la tormenta!

Wither the Rain?

It's April Fool's Day, but I did not bother celebrating this year. Rather pointless seeing that just about every other day is such a day, or am I just kidding? I dunno.

Last month was one of our driest on record, having gotten a few drops from a passing "storm" last Friday on my way home from work. I don't know how much was recorded if not negligible; clouds remained throughout most of Saturday, which began clearing by late afternoon. The forecast for tomorrow, Wednesday, was another chance for some showers but looks to pass us by according to the weather station I'm watching right now. It's our local weather channel, because there isn't anything else on the boob tube that I care to watch.

Instead, the precipitation will probably end up in the mountains to the east, even better if it's in the form of snow. Used to be I'd clamor for the rain so we wouldn't end up with a drought stricken summer, but now I'm wondering if I should have been so concerned. Our water supply in the valley comes from the amount of water in our snowpack in the Sierras. If managed properly we should be okay.

Hoping that that's not a big if.

And Then The Wind

All this wind just blows!

Today's storm has brought down power lines and many trees, and tossed about property that wasn't securely tied down. Watching this evening's news revealed more traffic collisions had occured than is imaginable. Some of the fallen trees have destroyed parked cars and crashed into homes. My truck was okay while it sat at the light rail station, although the trains weren't running resulting from this abhorrent weather (a coworker's husband drove me from work back to the parking lot). The trees surrounding my house were still rooted, although my yard was littered with some branches, none so big as to cause noticeable damage, if any. The rainwater level rose on my back patio due to the poor drainage, so water leaked into the mudroom. Damn. Good thing I have a wet/dry vacuum cleaner. I was most worried about my 10'x10' canvas topped metal gazebo; the winds were more violent than I have ever experienced. Whew, it was still standing and appeared unscathed.

However, half my backyard redwood fence had blown over (onto my side), knocking over a metal citronella torch and nearly disrupting some stones I set up around a little pond I've been working on for over the past year. Hah, did I not previously hint that when it rains, it pours?

C'est la vie!