The Snow is Still on Our Mountains

Rain, warm rain, is predicted for tonight and tomorrow so this may be the last time we'll get to see all this snow as we travel around the county. It was cool but sunny again today - a really beautiful winter day! (And a beautiful "pink moment" as the sun was setting!)

Addendum: I just realized today's significance (besides it being Jane's birthday!) and end with this quote my friend, Judy V, emailed me:

This year Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address fell on the same day.

It's an ironic juxtaposition: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of limited intelligence for meaningless prognostication on subjects he doesn't understand.
The other involved a groundhog.
(Click on the photo of Punxsutawney Phil to read about this year's prognostication.)

September Rain

Yesterday and today brought big clouds, some wind, postcard views, and RAIN! The rain was scattered. Our rain gauge caught .2 inch in two days, but according to the L.A. Times and the Weather Underground, parts of Ventura got .1 inch of rain yesterday and .2 inch today. It got all the way up to 77 degrees and down to 54 last night - a pretty wide spread around here! The Times reported an interview with a JPL meteorologist who said the low-pressure system from the Aleutian Islands was moved down to SoCal by an "uncharacteristically southern-tending jet stream". It was then "orphaned" as the jet stream moved back north. It then became the cutoff low we're used to, as it swirled around off the coast and inland, until it finally came onshore. The rain we got was the first since the .04" that fell in April, but it also caused a rain delay to the Angel baseball game - the first in nine years!I walked on Mandalay Beach and actually got warm AND came home with a tan line on my arm! Besides beautiful cloud formations and views of the islands, there were more snowy plovers than I've ever seen in one place!

We Might Be In the Tropics (If We Pretend)

Hurricane Dean, the storm that hit the Yucatan area as a Category 5 hurricane last week, blew all the way up to SoCal. We got a cool wind instead of warm weather, but we did get some gorgeous sunsets and sunrises!