>I live in Southern California; every so often we get what’s called the El Nino, torrential rains that are brought on by some strange and predictable weather pattern- and I think it makes the ocean warm up a bit too. In any case, Los Angeles is one of the least rainiest cities in the USA (our average is less than 15 inches/year) and while it must look silly to the rest of the country that we panic over “a bit of rain”, you have to keep in mind one fundamental problem: DRAINAGE! We don’t get rain, so when we DO get it, there is no where for the water to go. We flood. We have accidents. Our roads are not designed for heavy rain. Try to imagine resurfacing the 405 fwy- which has more daily traffic than any other freeway in the US … impossible. They’ve been doing construction near my off-ramp for THREE YEARS and still haven’t finished because of the sheer number of cars on the road. We also have ridiculous wild fires that burn up hundreds of acres of land, which are now extremely dangerous places to be with crazy rain like this. Mudslides. Flooding. It sucks.

As I was driving home Monday along PCH (beautiful road!), the ocean was amazing! It was between storms, the clouds had temporarily parted, and it looked as if the sea was boiling. Then earlier today, as I was coming home from a lunch date, I saw this egret in the new pond that had formed under my favorite oak trees. Enjoy!

After the Storm

El Nino Panorama

Rainbird