Wacky May Weather

It rained in Southern California yesterday. I mean, it really rained, as in poured. Big fat raindrops beating on the roof of the house and thunder in the distance. There were mudslides in some of the canyon areas, some areas had hail, and others had tornadoes!

This may sound like normal spring weather to some of you, but it's not at all normal for this area. In a normal year most of our rain falls in the winter, typically in the month of February. If we get any rain at all in May, it's a tiny bit of drizzle. On Wednesday the forecast was at 20% chance of rain, not a deluge.

I'm not complaining, in fact, I love rain. It's good for the plants and it makes everything green. I was just so surprised, I opened the door, turned the digital camera on video and let it run for 30 seconds so I'd have proof.

Linda

Signs of Spring

Spring comes early to Southern California (don't hate me, ye who live in snow country), and thanks to slightly more than our usual amount of rain this winter, it looks to be a particularly pretty spring. After several years of drought, I'm especially happy to see the hills greening up so nicely. Last year Orange County had all of 2.2 inches of rain, so this is a really nice change. We'll have a few months to enjoy the green before things heat up, but by mid-summer, the green will be gone and the hills will be their usual shade of light brown.

Here are a couple of pictures of Orange County. The rainy street scene was shot on Sunday during our most recent rain, and I took the sunny picture this morning. Both are beautiful to me, the rainy scene perhaps more than the sunny one, since rain is far rarer than sun in this climate. And we need it so badly.

Linda / Lyndi