Look out! El Nino is back!

[paologregorio]

An El Nino winter typically brings a lot of rain to California. SoCal news/weather people will be very happy, gives them plenty to talk about. Just a few drops of rain and a puff of wind and they are on storm watch.

As soon as a single misty drop hits the asphalt, the cameras of every local news organization relentlessy focus on aformentioned slightly damp asphalt, with "STORM WATCH" in the boldest grapics possible emblazoned across the TV screen.

[Danotron]

And traffic slows to a crawl, more than the usual crawl.

[jimk]

I just hope we get a hard enough winter to kill the bugs. One winter, I think it was 98-99 we hardly had any winter at all. Ticks and chiggers were abundant waaaaay too early in the season to suit me.
JimK

[collin]

Hells yeah!

I'm going surfing again.

I remember back in '98, things got a little crazy--local beaches (like Seal Beach, CA) at high tide flooded a bunch of beach front houses, and they had to build a 15 foot berm of sand to keep the water back. I've never seen so much water, and the waves grew too big to surf sometimes, in places where it was usually dead for riding.

I ain't worried, we need the rain, and maybe we can prepare for it a little more.


Plus....El Nino is Spanish for...."The Niiiiiino"

[cjj]

Up here in Northeastern Montana, we're supposed to get a milder winter (a few less days of -40 I suppose), but less moisture. On the good side, we're supposed to get a cooler summer with more rain. As for hail, as long as we don't get a storm like we got a couple of years ago with 3-inch hail stones, I'll be happy. Boy, what a mess that was...

[8mileshigher]

An El Nino winter typically brings a lot of rain to California. SoCal news/weather people will be very happy, gives them plenty to talk about. Just a few drops of rain and a puff of wind and they are on storm watch.

As soon as a single misty drop hits the asphalt, the cameras of every local news organization relentlessy focus on aformentioned slightly damp asphalt, with "STORM WATCH" in the boldest grapics possible emblazoned across the TV screen.

Yeah, but when Jackie Johnson says "Storm Watch" or warns of El Nino on channel 9 newscasts, a lot of So Cal viewers forget about the rain drops and are listening attentively to her .....

There are 451,000 Google entries for her !!
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ja ... on&aqi=g10

[cjj]

I'm not sure it's the words "Storm Watch" that get people attentively listening (or more appropriately watching)...

[kiramdear]

When I was growing up in and making my life in big cities, I used to laugh at the weather, too. But now that I live a little closer to the Earth I take these reports very seriously. During the winter the VHS is tuned to NOAA for daily forecasts, and during the storms I listen by the hour. We have a few boats sink around us every year that the Winter is extreme, and I sure don't want mine to be one of them. Some of the storms can feel alarmingly severe when you're not bolted down on dry land; imagine your house rocking to 45 degrees for hours at a time, and having your basement flood at a pace too quick for comfort!

Both ways of life have their advantages and disadvantages, I found out. On one hand it's nice to not be afraid of storms, but on the other hand the boating life is wonderful in the summertime.

[cjj]

imagine your house rocking to 45 degrees for hours at a time, and having your basement flood at a pace too quick for comfort!

Hmm, sounds like one of our big summertime thunderstorms...
We had one the other day with a small tornado pass by about 1/4 mile away, power was out for 7+ hours. I tend to have a computer watching the nearby weather radars during summer...

[collin]

Yeah, but when Jackie Johnson says "Storm Watch" or warns of El Nino on channel 9 newscasts, a lot of So Cal viewers forget about the rain drops and are listening attentively to her .....

There are 451,000 Google entries for her !!
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ja ... on&aqi=g10

Yeah, I love the rain---for Jackie Johnson alone she's a babe---Schwing!

If she were president, she'd be Baberaham Lincoln.
In Latin, her name is Babia Majora .....etc etc etc etc....

[kiramdear]

imagine your house rocking to 45 degrees for hours at a time, and having your basement flood at a pace too quick for comfort!

Hmm, sounds like one of our big summertime thunderstorms...
We had one the other day with a small tornado pass by about 1/4 mile away, power was out for 7+ hours. I tend to have a computer watching the nearby weather radars during summer...

CJ, I figured you might have a better idea than most as to where I'm coming from. I don't blame anyone for laughing about it - I had no idea myself how much the elements could affect my life until I bought my boat seven years ago. It's just a very different way of living, and not without its compensations as well.

[whojamfan]

I spend most of my time in my truck driving cross country, and I've been from snow to rain to blistering heat all in one day. I live in my truck when I'm out, and have been through tornados, hail, whiteouts-you name it. Even parked, these puppies can rock very substantially in a moderate wind, and feel like they are going to tip over in a heavy one. I understand just what you're saying Kira.

[cjj]

Oh yeah, I know what you're talking about there! I'm usually hauling flatbeds with equipment or hay, but one time when I was pulling a dry van, empty of course, and hit a strong cross wind, man, those were some white knuckle miles for sure...

[kiramdear]

I spend most of my time in my truck driving cross country, and I've been from snow to rain to blistering heat all in one day. I live in my truck when I'm out, and have been through tornados, hail, whiteouts-you name it. Even parked, these puppies can rock very substantially in a moderate wind, and feel like they are going to tip over in a heavy one. I understand just what you're saying Kira.

I guess living on a boat isn't vastly different than living in a big truck, except that your chances of your truck sinking are fewer.

[jimk]

I'm not sure it's the words "Storm Watch" that get people attentively listening (or more appropriately watching)...

My thought exactly.

Living in the midwest has taught given me an appreciation for the power of Nature. I remember one Sunday morning a couple of years back, some sort of severe wind literally roared through Lawrence. Meteorologists were uncertain at the time whether to call it a tornado (none had been sighted) or a straight line wind. The neighbor, a Chinese university student was near panic stricken because she'd never seen anything like it, and didn't know where else to go, since she didn't have a basement. By the time she got through all her questions about safety, and where to go, what to do, it was all over. There were huge tree limbs literally jammed through the roofs of houses. Of course the electricity was out all over the city. Some street signal lights had been dashed to the pavement downtown. It was amazing. I took a walking tour of my neighborhood that afternoon.

That episode was exceptional, though. Usually, during tornado season, the sky turns this pukey green color, and there's all kinds of thunder and lightning, and then it's over in an hour or two.
JimK