recent rainiest rains

rainiest rains
Originally uploaded by 7-how-7.

So i move to California, and of course i am a sucker for all the stereotypes, rumors and lies. Like the stories about the weather:

"oh yeah," they all said, "it's always sunny and 70."

Like the rube that i am, i buy it.

So I get here in May of last year and right away we have a day where it gets to about 105 degrees. It doesn't stay that way, but still, what about sunny and 70?

And then we get into what is called "June Gloom", a cloudy, foggy overcast patch of weather that everyone but me seems to hate. I'll take it over Texas in June everytime, but again, where's the sun?

And then summer with a small s. Compared to Texas, nothing to worry about. Pleasant, as advertised. And the weather does stay nice for a pretty long stretch. Beach trips in November and December. Lots of sunny. Lots of 70. Lots of 80. Fine, I'll take it.

But then it starts. The rainy season. California, you may have heard, is sometimes referred to as the Golden State. It is actually quite green for some of the year, and then when the scrub and the brush start to wilt and dry out, it becomes the Golden State. But this is the year I chose to move here. So of course it ends up being either the rainiest or 2nd rainiest year on record since they've been keeping track of that sort of thing.

And of course, what would you expect in the rainiest year on record ? Sunny and 70? No. Instead the hillsides in my neighborhood turned to mud and many a mini-mountain of mud sludged its way down to the lower elevations (see the photo at the top, and this one. Lots of folks lost their homes, and some people even died. But finally, for now, it seems to have cleared up.

Sunny and 70 ? Sometimes...

But i still love it irregardless.