California Storm Watch - Stay Safe [early Feb, 2024]

I have about an hour before I need to head up to El Dorado Hills for work. I’m not looking forward to driving in the dark with all the possible debris on the roads. I have a hard time driving in the dark as it is and the wet streets just make it more difficult.

Earlier reports showed a lot of rain and thunderstorms today, but it looks less likely now. I hope that wind is done. Man, that was not enjoyable.

No rain or wind this morning. It’s trash day and all of the bins on the street are still upright.

I dreaded the commute this morning, but only one road closure to work around. It helps that I’m on an early schedule well before most commuters are on the road.

Everything is so saturated. With another two or three days of rain coming, the risk of floods and landslides is going to be insane. I might take off work and just chill at home.

Oh wow. I was texting a friend in Carmel last night, and she says they had a power outage. She didn’t mention the giant storm.

We ended up with over 7 inches of rain at our location. But the ski resorts got something like 6 feet of snow. Will be great skiing this month.

Not only has almost all of California up to date on rain for the year- most of SoCal has received 100% or more of its entire yearly rainfall already;

https://ggweather.com/seasonal_rain.htm

And…the first article is already out reminding us that “…the rain also promotes growth of grasses and brush that will become fuel for future fires when the weather inevitably turns dry again.”

Explainer: California rains: good for drought, fuel for wildfires

And now for something completely different…Earthquake!

A 4.7, centered in Thousand Oaks

They’re saying 4.6 at Malibu. It shook us pretty good.

Yeah, if we have too much rain (lots of vegetation growth to dry out later), too little rain (everything is overly dry - it’s been xx years since we had rain), or even just an average year, the message is the same at the beginning of every summer - “This may be the worst fire season ever!”

I am reading there was one in Hawaii, not sure yet.

Lucy Jones is just now saying there’s no relationship between our earthquake and the one in Hawaii.

They won’t let Dr. Jones retire!

Here’s the USGS Earthquake Map if anyone is interested.

In Hawaii (big island) there appears to be a few today on the southern coast (near Kilauea), all <3.0. The one near Malibu was 4.6 - which is much more noticeable than anything under 3.0 (unless you are right on top if it).

I’m not sure of the scientific basis, but I expect an earthquake after the rain.

This one was fairly noticeable.