“I don’t know, let me get back to you on that”. The question: What is causing the unusually rainy (or snowy) weather in SoCal? When drought conditions gripped California, pundits blamed Climate Change. Now that torrential precipitation falls, doomsayers also blame Climate Change. You got to love stupidity. They can’t know!
A smart scientist would give some version of the proposed answer in the previous paragraph. Genius would make a hypothesis and begin collecting data to prove or disprove it. Occam’s Razor suggests starting with weather-influencing factors that are atypical and possibly convergent: El Niño and the approaching Solar Maximum of the typical 11-year Solar Cycle.
How much rain, really? Across San Diego County, totals for the week (through mid-morning today) range from .89 cm (.35 inches) in Borrego Springs (deep desert) to 19.3 cm (7.59 inches) in San Onofre. At the airport: 6.07 cm (2.39 inches), which is close to the estimate for my neighborhood of University Heights. These are relatively light totals compared to the onslaught on Jan. 22, 2024 when, according to the National Weather Service, San Diego had its wettest 24 hours in 174 years (1850).
Rainfall totals in northern Southern California are nothing short of staggering. Snippet from KTLA: “Downtown Los Angeles saw the most rain over a two-day period since 1956, NWS said, adding that nearly half of the average seasonal rainfall for Los Angeles fell on Sunday and Monday alone”. Maybe you’ve heard of, ah, Beverly Hills where 23.7 cm (9.35 inches) of rain fell this week. Downtown LA: 22 cm (8.66 inches). Bel Air: 33.1 cm (13.04 inches). Sepulveda Canyon at Mulholland Drive: 33 cm (13.02 inches).
Let’s talk Featured Image and companion, both taken today. My wife and I braved sporadic showers and walked to Smart & Final, over which parking lot massive clouds created dramatic atmosphere. Vitals: f/1.7, ISO 12, 1/2200, 23mm (film equivalent); 11:05 a.m. PST.
The second shot looks out the front steps of our apartment building. Vitals: f/2.4, ISO 50, 1/1250 sec, 70mm (film equivalent); 9:10 a.m. Some compromises were made in editing to pull out the rainbow’s colors. Both photos comes from Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.