I exited my dentist’s Miracle Mile office not long after 10 a.m. this morning confronted by the absolute beauty of the day — its comfortable crystal clarity prevented me from beelining it on my bike to work. So I took the long way to Westchester. Instead of heading south to Culver City, I cut through Beverly Hills got up onto Santa Monica Boulevard and rolled that thoroughfare all the way to its end where I paused to enjoy the breathtaking views from the palisades before cranking it south along a near-barren beach bikepath to Venice and its pier from which I observed sea lions and dolphins before snapping the above shot of the solitary surfer surveying his vast empire.

Glorious days like this are enough to bring a tear to my eye.

With the threat of a heavy rains putting STROMWARTCH ‘09 back in full effect and  the U.S. Geological Survey coming out with an interactive neighborhood mudslide risk map for the communities that reside along the base of the San Gabriels so thoroughly denuded by the Station Fire last month, I reckon it might not be a bad time to go back to a post I made in April as part of LA Metblogs “Songs About Los Angeles” compendium, focusing on Woody Guthrie’s ballad “The New Year’s Flood,” which chronicled the disasterous deluge of January 1, 1934 (also preceded and aided by a wildfire) that sent debris flows through the communities of Tujunga, La Crescenta, Montrose, Glendale, Burbank and more destroying an estimated 600 homes and killing anywhere from 25 to 100 people (or more), depending on the source.

Here’s hoping hard that history doesn’t repeat itself.

I first moved to Los Angeles in January (2002) from Madison, Wisconsin, and while there are about ten thousand reasons to be thrilled about such a move (proximity to an ocean, the ability to purchase a kosher hot dog, PJ Harvey concerts…), it being mid-winter, the reason foremost in my mind for a long time was the weather. I, in fact, reset the homepage of my web browser to weather.com, zip code 53703 so that every morning I could get my daily dose of Schadenfreude (“Gee it’s a bit chilly today, I may need a long-sleeved shirt and a jacket. Oh look, it’s -5 in Madison. Poor sods.”). At the time I thought I would never tire of LA’s long strings of sunnyday-sunnyday-sunnyday-sunnyday. My local friends, in contrast, were delighted about the rare occasions when it was overcast. For my part I thought anyone who had spent eleven long years in Wisconsin, as I had, had already lived through a lifetime’s supply of crappy weather. I have a friend who moved to LA from Minnesota who used to tell the folks back in Moorhead, “We know it’s winter because of the steam that rises off our hot tubs at night.” What’s so wrong with endless summer anyway I ask you?

 

And then it happened: I crossed the rubicon. (more…)

 

Out here in the SGV we’ve had the odd rumble of thunder since late morning.   The actual lightning and thunder with light rain has been going on for an hour.  Enough rain that it washed the dust off the car, but not enough to satiate my garden or end our drought.  Am liking this break in the June Gloom.

Pic by me with the trusty cell phone about 1:30 when we were caught in a quick down pour.

update 2:30PM…here in Monrovia we have heavy rain and rock salt sized hail!

I’m on the Southeast coast of Florida, that well-known stretch between Miami and Palm Beach.  Therefore, it’s time for another installment of East Coast vs. West Coast.  This area of the East Coast was my second choice of home location after the West Side and South Bay beach towns near Los Angeles.  So while I’m here visiting the runner-up location, I want to see if I made the right decision.  Here’s how I evaluate it:

FLA vs. L.A., after the jump

Thankfully we have only another day or so of scorching in the Valleys before we cool down. Until then, remember the pets. Especially the outdoor pets. Leave them extra water. If you’re a little fotp* like me, jury-rig some shade with a card table and pull out the inflatable pool so poochy has a place to cool off.

Pic by me of the temp gauge in the City of Industry a bit ago. Yes, it was freaking 108 before 2PM.

*fotp=fotpee or “Fresh outta the trailer park.”

Ahh weather in LA. Yeah, it’s an anomaly to have anything but sunny skies… so last night’s wind and rain was rather exciting. Even more rad was the huge explosion of sci-fi light and sound it caused in Beachwood Canyon around 8:30 last night.

As we were sitting down for dinner, suddenly the whole canyon exploded in eerie blue light. Crazy jolts of electricity thundered in the air. The lights flickered and for a moment, everything went dark. Then huge arcs of electricity bounced back and forth over the power lines and across the canyon in a spectacular display. Sparks flew everywhere. This went on for at least a minute. I seriously thought we were goners. It was right next to the house and I’ve never seen or felt anything so other oddly worldly. And damn scary. Electrical arcs that huge are pretty awesome.

(more…)

Since I’ve moved to Los Angeles–two “winters”, so called, so far–I’ve been overwhelmed by the creeping inability to withstand any actual weather that afflicts Angelenos. The “storms” this December drove in this observation. Partially via the rather breathless newscasters excitedly proclaiming the few inches of snow in some nearby mountains and slightly coolish temperature in Los Angeles and environs themselves, coming during some pleasantly mild rains. But really the observation strikes me hardest among my own friends and acquaintances.

I can understand well enough how natives to the area would be inexperienced with things like water coming from the sky, or temperatures falling to actual button-your-jacket levels. For that matter, the immigrants from similar or warmer climes, are equally excused of the corruption of this rant… (more…)

Although we have relatively mild winters in the Los Angeles area, we still get short days. Therefore, I became a bit giddy yesterday when, as my photo indicates, the sun did not fully set over Venice Beach/Marina Channel until 6 p.m. I assure you that my most bearable lightness of being had nothing to do with a certain iced and caffeinated beverage that ends in a vowel, followed by a caffeinated iced tea, that I had just imbibed.

It’s simply that the prospect of Spring and longer days makes me Snoopy dancing happy. It means the ability to partake in outdoor activities in the evening, or just to leave one’s office building for the day while it’s still light outside. I can’t wait to host a barbeque this late Spring or Summer and to cook without having to use my Energizer LED Nightlight camping lantern with its horrendous fluorescent light, which prevents me from determining whether the burgers are medium rare or medium burnt. Yes, Los Angeles, Spring is coming!

Ok, maybe the caffeine had a tiny effect.

The rain moved into the area hard and heavy about an hour ago here in the Foothill Cities.  I”m about 2 miles east of Sierra Madre and we have had about 1″ of rain since it started raining around 4AM.  Sierra Madre has issued Red Flag alerts with voluntary evacuation.  All the info needed on the evacuations can be found on the Sierra Madre city web.  

The exact verbage on the warning from their web:

RED FLAG ALERT
The City’s state of emergency level is now at the Stage 3 – RED FLAG. This was activated with an LA County Phase 2 or 3 forecast. Phase 2 includes moderate debris and mudflows at more widespread locations. Phase 3—the potential exists for significant debris and mudflows to be widespread. Affected residents should get SET to leave their homes and may choose to voluntarily evacuate. Vehicles should not be parked on the streets.