WAITING FOR HILARY - UPDATED (SUNDAY PM - LATE EVENING)

Well, my neighborhood - and many others here in SoCal - have finally made the national news as we await the arrival of Hurricane, er, I mean Tropical Storm, Hillary, the first time one of these things has come far enough north to do more than give us high clouds and some late-summer/early-fall rain, with the only other one recorded as having come ashore 84 yars ago in September 1939, competing with the news that Britain had declared war on Germany that day.

We’re better equipped with weather news than they were back in 1939, when they didn’t have any - the storm was responsible for a weather station with public reports being established here, confirming Hell Lay’s unequaled record for locking the barn door after the stallion kicked out the walls and went galloping off, taking the mares with him.

So in answer to the emails from concerned readers, here’s what’s what, according to the latest update from that locking the barn etc., etc., weather reporting office.

Currently as of this morning at 0800 our time, Hillary was a Category 2 hurricane - down from yesterday’s Category 4 - and is expected to be a Tropical Storm by the time it comes ashore somewhere south of San Diego/north of Tijuana tomorrow morning.

A Tropical Storm isn’t nothing - I went through six of them in the Western Pacific while in the Navy - but it’s nothing like a for-real hurricane. I went through six typhoons out there, and when the old top-heavy 16,000-ton USS Rustbucket was rolling 25 degrees to either side of upright, and taking green seas over a bow that was 70 feet above the waterline, it was no fun. Not to mention hard to stop running into the bulkheads.

So, unlike everyone else I know here who isn’t an east coast refugee, I’ve been through this before. Been There/Done That.

Yes, this sort of thing is very unusual here, but “unusual weather” is now likely to become increasingly usual in the world of Global Warming. Usually, the Pacific Ocean delivers colder water into the regions off SoCal/Northern Mexico, but this year we were informed we’d be having the warmest El Nino in 20 years. So far, it’s been reported warmer than that, with the waters off Baja in the 90s and the waters off SoCal in the 80s. For those keeping score, that’s about 8-10 degrees above what used to be usual. As those on the east coast are aware, it’s warm waters in the tropics that breed these storms. So that’s how we have come to be worrying about the next few days.

The latest storm track puts Hillary going over San Diego - so if you feel the need to worry, worry about GaryInSanDiego and others down there - since they will see the strongest rain. The storm then heads north-northeast over Orangatang County and up into Hell Lay County, crossing somewhere east of Pasadena and west of San Bernardino (putting it a good 25-40 miles from La Casa de Gatos), which will happen sometime late afternoon/early evening tomorrow. So we’ll probably get some strong winds, and a rainstorm that could equal the one that came through in 2017 and dumped enough water over three hours that at one point I could barely see the house across the street. Since the rain area of these things extends some 75-100 miles out from the eye of the storm, we’ll probably see rain throughout tomorrow night and early Monday morning. It did prompt me yesterday and this morning to get the last of the trash from the cleanup out of the back yard and into the trash cans.

The biggest likelihood on the list of Problems To Deal With could be a loss of power. So if I stop posting things or replying to email in that period, that’s what happened.

I would say to everyone in San Diego County that you should be sure you have cleaned out the rain gutters.

T-Th-Tha-That’s All, Folks! For now.

UPDATE AS OF SATURDAY NIGHT for the Western SFV: STORM INFORMATION: - About 600 miles south-southeast of Avalon CA or about 640 miles south-southeast of Los Angeles Airport CA - 25.3N 114.6W - Storm Intensity 90 mph - Movement North-northwest or 345 degrees at 18 mph. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for all of Los Angeles County, as well as the mountains, valleys, and foothills of Ventura County. Below tropical storm force wind - Peak Wind Forecast: 20-30 mph with gusts to 45 mph (that’s not even up to Santa Ana Winds). Peak Rainfall Amounts: Additional 2-4 inches, with locally higher amounts. Situation is unfavorable for tornadoes - little to no impacts are anticipated at this time across Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, or San Luis Obispo Counties in Southern California.

SUNDAY MORNING UPDATE: This storm is not living up to hype! There is no wailing winds, no trees knocked down, no river instead of a street. Just some gentle warm rain (it is tropical, after all). Despite my disappointment, I can defintely live with that.

Hopefully, those down in San Diego can let us know what they got.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE - 2:45pm PDT: Only in Southern California, while awaiting the arrival of a hurricane, would you have an earthquake for the first time in three years. Yes! We did! A “roller” (my chair went back and fort six times) for about a 45-second quake.

SUNDAY EARLY EVENING - rain picked up about 20 minutes ago to about as strong as a good winter storm. Nothing I haven’t seen before. Most of the damage is 20-30 miles to the east. The storm tracking says the storm will be out of the area by 11pm tonight. The worst thing that happened was some poor reception for about 5 minutes on the satellite cable. It’s still a big ho-hum here, which is just fine by me.

SUNDAY LATE EVENING - rain is down to a light drizzle here in the western 818. The only problem I had all evening was some interference with reception while I was watching the new documentary “San Francisco Sound”, about all my old friends back in the day when SF was a place worth living in (unlike today with all the Silly Con Valley scum). (It’s a good documentary - on MGM, lots of rebroadcasts this week of Part 1)

But NBC news just had a story about businesses getting flooded over on Melrose in West Hollyweird. So there’s that.

But the storm will be out of the region by 1-2am.

Please consider supporting That’s Another Fine Mess by becoming a paid subscriber for only $7/month or $70/year.

Comments are for the paid subscribers.