More rain.

[furtech]

Some part of me feels like I should be doing something significant when there is -this- much rain. Plant stuff or mud-luge or *something*.



One rather bad consequence of all this wet is that the trails that we like to hike have been devastated. A month ago Roz and I (with Frieda) tried to walk some of the more durable trails (dis-believing the "trail closed" signs). Some were uncrossable: ten-foot wide gullies every hundred yards or so. Some filled with water, some just eroded during the massive downpours we have had. A few were cross-able with scrambling, but Frieda is a bit old for that, so we eventually turned back.

Now, a month and about 16 inches later, I can't iimagine they're in any better shape. It took them a month+ last year to repair the trails...and there hasn't been any break for them to do -any- real work on the back trails. So no hikes on trails unless it's Mulholland. And any walk at all is arrived at by planning days around breaks in the weather (thanks, NOAA !)

Still, at this point I prefer rain and chill to baking hot and dry. I'll just pretend I'm in Seattle.

Comments

[skorzy.livejournal.com]

Hehe... practice your water treading skills? ;)

[crocuta.livejournal.com]

All the rain has put a hold on our walks too, I was lucky and got in a long one earlier today.
I hope the trails get repaired quickly. Are they under local operation or state/fed?

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I think most of the parks are under local operation...and they're always under-funded. I'm not sure -how- they're going to fix some of them (sheer cliffs, some 20-30 foot drops).

seattle in san fernando

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

it is absolutely POURING here, yup... *boggle*

[fuzzytoedcollie.livejournal.com]

*squish!*
Had the wet stuff here when I walked Daisy last night, too. Grabbed an umbrella on the way out the door; Daisy didn't seem to mind in the least :)
Daisy tolerated a towel or two afterwards, but didn't dive into them like Lady use to.
mmmmmm...wet dog smell...*LOL*

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Even as an old lady, Frieda's still pretty all-weather too. I always liked that about the breed (rain just falls off her top-coat and her undercoat stays dry). Still, sometimes she'll just snooze in a light rain, then come in to water the walls (*shake-shake*!)

[aeto.livejournal.com]

I happened to see an interesting statistic at work, the other day...

Total rainfall, October to present:
LA - 21"
Seattle - 16"

What's wrong with this picture? :>

(And don't blame El Nino this year. Blame the lack of an NAO block setting up to lock in the standard "winter" pattern for weather. It's been a pain in the arse dealing with trying to figure out what this is going to do all year.)

???

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I'd heard that as of late last week, we'd actually gotten double Seattle's rainfall for this year. We must be getting all of the Northwest's weather: they're having a severe drought this season, and the ski resorts have pretty much closed already. Their totals are what we normally get for a decently wet year.

How can we -not- blame El Nino? And actually, the rainfall total should crack 30 inches by today (2/21/05), potentially putting this year into the top five wettest years in (recorded) L.A. history...and the season isn't even over yet.

Re: ???

[aeto.livejournal.com]

Wow... Just looked in the database for rain totals for Jan and Feb; yeah, LAX got significantly more than twice the rain as Seattle this year so far. (My numbers were for October to just before this latest rain spell.)

As to the El Nino comment, there is, at best, a weak El Nino this year. Weak El Nino dynamics tend not to correlate strongly with, well, much of anything in North America. There are a bunch of other natural cycles which get less press and have had much more impact on the climate than the El Nino cycle, IMHO. In many ways, some of these cycles are much less well understood than El Nino as well.

However, once this system we've got setting up now actually DOES set up, things *should* get better. We hope. :>

(Would you believe this is what I'm doing for a living now? :> )

Re: ???

[millencolinf0x.livejournal.com]

Yep, it's really dry here. I had to cancel my ski trip and most likely this summer we will have a very large water shortage. Feel free to send some of that rain over here...