OH MY GOD! I can't remember a time when it has been so bad here in Los Angeles with Rain. Some say El Nino in 1995.....but this seems worse! It has rained again a lot this week and it looks like it will continue into next week! Looks like we are heading for more bad news in Los Angeles...

Todd and our other CA friends, stay dry!! I have been watching the news and it doesn't look pretty. I hope everyone is safe and out of harms way.

This is heavy, heavy stuff. I got off the freeway tonight because the rain was so drenching that I couldn't see and I felt my car hydroplaning enough to easily lose control. In the past weeks and then day we've had two tornado warnings! Hail! Thunder! We are just lucky that we're in the "flats" so our chance of mudslide and house slide is not possible.

Our dogs are not pleased with this weather either. Maybe we should trade them in for Labrador's or another water loving breed (just kidding). Gizmo is hiding from the towels so we won't dry him off when we come in from out there. He hates it. And Daisy is barking at the rain now. Like that will make it go away.

It really looks awful, on the news. Rain, rain, rain, mudslides, and who ever heard of tornados , on the west coast?
Be safe, all our Calif. friends!

Betty

This is really the worst we've experienced in 35 years of living here.

The one thing that always strikes me odd are the times when, after a torrential downpour, the sun appears and the weather is brilliant. A few moments after, it's a relentless downpour, once again.

We Californians sure could use a break. Fortunately, we are not impacted as much as others with flooding, mudslides, etc. But, driving in this leaves a lot to be desired.

I hope our fellow Californians remain safe!

EDITED TO SAY...Just heard a report that we may get a well-needed break today and tomorrow may be clear!

You guys are really taking a beating out there. Stay safe and we'll hope for things to let up some.

I see the sun trying to make an appearance! YES!

HERE COMES THE SUN....!!!!

[img]http://cdn.news.aol.com/aolweather_maps/sw_rad_318x215.421b451e-00012-004e7-ed960c40[/img]

Well, we have another Flash Flood Warning with a big cell posed right off the coast. Light rain and not a touch of sun here.

I think California is getting all our precipitation. We have received less than a third of what we normally get in a winter.

It feels like spring. It's very pleasant, but somehow it's just not right. Plants are leafing out already. If we get a solid freeze at this point I don't know what will happen.

Things are definitely topsy-turvy on the west coast right now.

Kathy, the visual aid is great. Just wish it had better news on it.

Todd, they are saying that this is now the 5th worst winter in recorded history for both Los Angeles and San Diego areas. We here in San Diego have had our share, but Los Angeles is getting the brunt of it, it seems. Is it true that they closed I-101 this morning because it was under water? That is what Tom said, but I haven't heard myself.

With staying in the house due to my foot problems (more info on that on the weight-loss support thread), I've been able to stay out of the worst of it. Yesterday afternoon we had some beautiful sunshine. This morning a little more sunshine and a beautiful double rainbow. Now it is partly cloudy. The raging river in the canyon below my house is back again. As Denise said, it is amazing how the weather is changing from minute to minute.

Marsha, yes - we are usually hearing all about your rain. You guys deserve to have a beautiful spring - your turn!!!

Everyone stay safe!!! And thanks to everyone's support here!!!

Cyndi - The closure was last night...

The California Highway Patrol began getting calls about people trapped in their vehicles on the Hollywood Freeway Santa Monica Boulevard overpass about 6:40 p.m. Knee-deep water was over the entire freeway and traffic quickly backed up for miles in both directions. No injuries were reported and all the vehicles were towed to safety

Sick of this already - another storm coming in just in time for the weekend! OY!

Robert, thanks for the info. How scary. As if driving L.A. freeways isn't scary enough!! Glad no one was hurt.

We're under a Tornado Warning!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, February 22, 2005 12:19 pm PST
4 counties are now under advisories, watches, or severe weather warnings.
Antelope Valley
Apple And Yucca Valleys
Catalina Island
Coachella Valley
Los Angeles County Coasts Inclg Downtown Los Angeles
Los Angeles County Mountains Exclg The Santa Monica Range
Los Angeles County Valleys
Riverside County Mountains
San Bernardino County And Riverside County Valleys - The Inland Empire
San Bernardino County Mountains
Santa Ana Mountains And Foothills
Santa Clarita Valley
Santa Monica Mountains Recreational Area
Ventura County Coastal Valleys
Ventura County Coasts
Ventura County Interior Valleys
Ventura County Mountains

Kathy, you take cover! A tornado warning means one has been spotted and you don't want to be caught off guard!

This awful weather is like that movie that was out last year, "The Day After Tomorrow" or something like that.

Kathy and all of you up in that area - please be safe!!!

It's been crazy this year, for sure...I don't remember it being this wet all my life, but my mom claims it was this way in the early 70's....to be fair, SoCal has been hit worse, but we have flash floods, hail and in some parts of SF and the peninsula, sink holes and houses on cliffs that can go at any minute...even Sacramento had tornadoes, now that is unheard of!!!

The only good news is that this year is going to be a fabulous ski year!!! Too bad we can't just go up yet!!

Yes it's pretty wild here. It just started thundering, and my poor doggie HATES thunder. He's crouching under my chair quivering. What a wuss. ;)

It's been pretty much a torential downpour for days, punctuated by a few breakouts of the sun. I've actually seen several incredible rainbows when that happens! This is definitely rainbow weather.

There are a number of road closures. I have to take the long route to get to my daughter's highschool to pick her up, because one of the roads on my usual route is under 3 feet of water!

We're safe -- while we're up on a hill, our house is not backed up against any hillsides. There might be some homes on the outskirts of our neighborhood that have to worry, though -- there's a deep arroyo there, and several houses built on the edge. I hope they'll be okay.

This is defintely the most sustained rain I can recall, even counting El Nino. I remember seeing last night that it's currently the 5th worst winter on record -- but the season isn't over yet, and if we get any more storms, we could easily end up the worst on record. Yowza!

Trying to look on the bright side -- the skiing is going to be phenomenal, so we're heading up to Mountain High this weekend. And think of how brilliant green the hills will be...and all the wildflowers we'll see this Spring!

LeeAnne, your perspective is refreshing..hope you
have great skiing..but schuss come to dive, I would rather be diving in Tahiti than skiing in the Alps..r/wes

I saw on the news last night that they were going through the areas where the mudslides are and telling people to leave for fear of potential deaths and people were saying they felt that they could protect their homes better by staying. I can only hope that they don't get hurt.

Are the people in CA prepared to deal with tornados?

Be safe!!!

Trish

You always find people who, despite warnings of catastrophe, will stay and "protect" their property. In my opinion, this is insane. Your life is worth far more than your property. These people also don't take into consideration that those who give their lives to protect these people (firemen, police, etc.), put themselves in harms way by doing so. They could conceivably loose their lives helping those who wish to remain.

The sun was very short-lived!

It has been pouring buckets and buckets since I arrived at work this morning at 7:30 AM. It feels as if you are under a perpetual waterfall.

As I was leaving the hotel, Housekeeping was mopping and wet-vacuuming our atrium, which is beginning to flood. Part of the carpet is saturated beyond words. We just had a very expensive trenching/drainage procedure done to alleviate flooding in the lobby/atrium area.We will now need to have additional work done, as the work done prior is not doing the trick.

As many have said, the upside to all this moisture will be great skiing and beautiful spring and summer flowers, and wonderful, clean air to breathe. The downside for Alan and me will be a miserable allergy season!

Rain, rain....get the heck out of town all ready!

All of you PLEASE stay safe! I think about you all the time.

Stay safe!!!! And please don't send it to chicago

I'm hoping we get some of this. It's been the wettest winter since I moved to old Pueblo. We need the rain anyway it comes. I'd rather have that than these fires we have had every year.

We actually had a hail storm today with big pieces of hail hitting my skylights. That's rare for Tucson so it may be sign of whats to come.

Definitely stay safe and be careful when you drive!

Definitely stay safe. Gil's daughter is vacationing this week in San Diego too...sigh.

ALL stay safe please! Have been thinking of you since yesterday but didn't post it as I find myself being a "weather geek!" When it's happening to you though, it's nice that others are aware!

I, too, send my safe thoughts to our Californian friends. Please be careful and hopefully the rain will end soon. Then, you will have those beautiful wildflowers.

Chip, you had hail yesterday? At our house, it was sunny/cloudy all day with not a drop of rain. The weather is certainly "localized" here. Can't wait for our wildflowers (they are starting to appear in the Tucson Mtns.). They should be spectacular this year. Hey, we could have an LCT wildflower viewing excursion!

no rain in about 3 hours.. nice
although our local "weird" news caster just said we were in store for a
"missard" he said it is in the dictionary.. will have to challenge that ..what does it mean??
supposedly means a mist and remnents of blizzard?but like I said I challenge that..don't ask me.. I am just the messenger <img border="0" alt="[bang]" title="" src="graemlins/banghead.gif" />

What station is that? :b: No wonder our kids can't speak English? (mine can't speak English - they bark!)

Well it did still rain today but at least we had periods of SUN and no more rain is predicted for four days.

I am so sick of this weather, I could scream!!!! In the 36 years I've lived here, I've never seen it like this. It IS like that movie, The Day After Tomorrow...the alert siren on my weather radio went off every 30 minutes on Monday....

Because of the rain, I wound up in an amusing situation, yesterday. When there was finally a break in the rain for more than an hour, I went out to my patio/garden area to clean up the ton of wet dog poop that had accumulated for the last 5 days when I couldn't get out to clean it b/c it never stopped raining.

Well!! I was so annoyed about the whole situation that as I exited the sliding glass door, I shut it a bit harder than usual. I guess the latch was half cocked, b/c the darn door locked on me, leaving me stranded on the patio.......IN MY JAMMIES, LOL!!!

Actually, jammies is a misnomer. All I had on was a big, oversized t-shirt---I'd been home telecommuting all day and never bothered to dress. I yelled for the neighbor, but naturally, she wasn't home. Naturally, my other patio door was also locked.

I had to climb over a huge polyvinyl fence--no, vault over would be a better word--too wobbly to support weight. I climbed onto the roof of the dog house and vaulted over. Somehow cut myself doing that, and then had to wallk out into the public area of this upscale townhome complex with all of the neighbors just coming home from work----and there I was, blood streaming down my leg, and just a long-ish t-shirt on.

Keep in mind, I'm a relatively new neighbor and still haven't met everyone, yet. The neighbor who has my spare key was not home, naturally. Some other kind neighbors took me in and called a locksmith for me. It was funny watching them try to talk to me like I was dressed in a business suit from Nordstrom instead of an old t-shirt with nothing else on, LOL....very gracious and classy people.

Oh, and did I mention that on the other side of the fence where I had to land from my 6 foot vault was a nearly foot deep mud puddle, so my feet and ankles were covered in mud??????

See, if it hadn't been so rainy, the dog poop wouldn't have accumulated like that, I wouldn't have been so grumpy and the door wouldn't have locked behind me. The locksmith (who remembered me from having repaired my locks when I first moved in) seemed to derive a great deal of entertainment out of the situation....I think he was still laughing as he drove off.....

Well THAT's my bad-weather story!!!! The neighbors who helped me, introduced me to another neighbor---a much older woman who peered at me through her glasses in a most curious way. I stammered, "Well, it's nice to meet you. I really AM a normal person...." She looked skeptical, though.... That's all for now. Liz.

Oh Liz, how funny! That sounds like something Teri Hatcher's character would do in Desperate Housewives!!

Liz,

Forgive me, but I can't stop laughing. :D I really am sorry, about your ordeal, but I couldn't help imagining the whole occurrence, and also thinking, what must be, in the minds of your new neighbors. HAHAHAHAHA ROFL!!!!!
This is a story line for "Desperate Housewives".

Betty

Edited to say: Sorry Karen, I guess we were posting at the same time. You know what they say about great minds.LOL

Liz,

That is funny; Somehow owning two of my own dogs and working from home occasionally, I do relate.

We have 4 days of sunshine predicted. :woh:

I was having the SAME thoughts of Terri Hatcher as I was reading that story. And Liz, you told it so well, I'm still laughing. I can just picture that older neighbor peering at you like that -- I was picturing Terri Hatcher stammering to Mrs. Huber! LOL!

OMG - that is so funny! I'd have been mortified.

Liz:

First of all, I'm glad you're safe and sound.

However, if I had been a witness to your vaulting various obstacles while muddied/bloodied, and dressed in an oversized t-shirt, I would have thought someone, somewhere, was filming a Grade B version of Spiderwoman. WOW!

Anyway, I like your style of writing and your sense of humor. Don't forget the Queen Mary!

Cheers! Ray

Liz,

That is just too funny. I accidently locked myself out of the house the scond day we moved in here and had to walk through the snow in my bare feet to my next door neighbor's to call a locksmith. I, too, was in my pj's - thank God they covered everything. He was very nice, and waited for the locksmith with me and stayed until I was back in the house. I kept telling him he should go to work, as he's an attorney, and I kept picturing this courtroom full of people waiting for him. You story is WAY worse, though. Glad you're ok. BTW, I solved my problem by hiding a key in the garage. That way, I can just use my keypad, grab the key and unlock the service door, if I ever do that again.

Hi, everyone---your laughter almost makes the whole ordeal worth it, LOL....actually, the poor locksmith had to interrupt his dinner to come rescue me, so I figured I'd done him a good turn by providing so much free entertainment...you know, the kind of story he can tell his grandchildren. Actually, he told me that in 22 years of being a locksmith, he'd never seen a predicament like mine, LOL.

Trish, your story sounds almost as dire.....I, too can picture the whole courtroom waiting for the attorney who helped you....and I can picture the story he told about a pyjama (sp) clad woman walking over to his place barefoot in the snow.....

and BTW, to those of you who sent the funny posts about Desperate Housewives...I don't even know what that show IS, so, now you HAVE to tell me about it...I HOPE that this Terri Hatcher is someone to whom it is FAVORABLE to be compared, LOL, LOL.

Ray, my cuise is the Navigator round trip to Tahiti in November....but I WAS on the QE1 when I was a young teenager (crossing N.Y. to Southampton).

I so enjoy all of you and can't wait to meet some of you on future cruises and/or just get to know you better on the message board. Adventures like the patio debacle ALWAYS happen to me, so perhaps I'll be real fodder for free entertainment............affectionatly, Liz.

Liz,

I am so looking forward to meeting you. That is one hysterical story! And, I thought things like this only happened to me!

Denise--

I'm looking forward to meeting you, too---because of so many other wonderful posts of yours I've read and because if things like this happen to you, too, then I figure we'd best stick together...at least to laugh at ourselves, if nothing else....

And all of you who posted about the Terri Hatcher character....You HAVE to tell me about her. It does sound suspiciously like me........

You should have SEEN that older woman peering at me through her glasses. I could hear her THINKING "Oh, my, what sort of people are moving into this neighborhood....." She did not seem to appreciate my attempt to salvage the awkward situation with humor ("I really AM a normal person...").

Thank God we had a break in the rain, today... I promise to post any further entertaining disasters that befall me....there have been MANY in my 53 years. Whenever it is I leave this earth, at least I know I'll leave 'em laughing...... Liz