Here we go again.
During this morning’s newscast, my friendly neighborhood weatherman was predicting gloom and doom for the remainder of the week. Starting tomorrow night and lasting through Sunday, we are supposedly going to get anywhere from 2-5 inches of rain in the coastal and valley areas, and up to 10 inches in the foothills and mountains. I have mixed feelings about this prediction.
My first feeling, as usual, is skepticism. Although we’ve already had more rain this season than last, it seems like everytime we’ve gotten a prediction for a “major” storm, it has fizzled out. It didn’t develop the way they thought, or it didn’t come as far south as they thought, or any of a myriad of other reasons. It’s frustrating to me because it’s so rare that we get any real rain around here, so I look forward to it, only to be disappointed most of the time.
Second, I’m annoyed. If you’ve lived in LA for any period of time, you can understand why from the title of this thread. Any time there’s a hint of moisture in the air, all the local news broadcasts go into “Storm Watch” coverage, putting multiple reporters out in the field in various locales so we can see what water falling from the sky looks like in downtown, suburbia and the mountains. It is guaranteed to be the top story of any broadcast for the first 10 - 15 minutes. It is just silly how worked up we get about rain in this area.
Third, I’m worried. As most folks know, we had a particularly bad fire season out here (not even over yet, technically – we had some bad Santa Anas as recently as last night, but without the intense heat, of course). There is real danger in areas that have recently been burned when we get measurable rain. And Mr. Weatherman says that as of right now, this could be our worst storm since January of '05. That means bad mud slides with more folks potentially losing their homes, and it means more stupid people hanging out around flood channels and dying when they get swept away.
Lastly, and somewhat contradictory to my prior point, I’m a bit excited. Again, this is nothing compared to the type of rain seen in any other part of the country, even if it turns out as bad as predicted (which, again, I’m doubtful about). But having lived in LA all of my 32 years, I really like a good dousing of rain. Granted, I commute by train, so I don’t have to deal with the horrific traffic others suffer through on the freeways, so I know I’m being selfish. But I’m really really really really really hoping we get soaked good. Not to mention that we are still well behind where we should be in terms of rain totals over the last few years, so we could use it.
Stay tuned – we’ll see what happens.
Still, better for him to be plagiarizing reputable sources than anything else, I suppose.