Oh Look, It’s Raining
Woman in the Middle | January 22, 2017We love our extremes in California. Drought, then torrential rains, then drought again. Right now we are experiencing that rain part of the cycle. Hubby and I had to run some errands (must buy Blackie the only food he likes, available only in pet stores, whatever the weather) so we were out in the rain. I had taken a shower just before we left. Interesting fact – if you keep getting out and walking through the rain, it is almost impossible to get your hair to dry!
It was very nice to get back home to our dry, warm, and cozy house. Homes are always cozy on rainy days, for some reason. I think even the biggest house becomes cozy on a rainy day. Add a few sleeping cats, and the cozy factor goes up exponentially.
Since I love history, and local history in particular, I thought I would share with you an interesting historical bit about these cycles of drought and flood we seem to have here in California. In 1861 the residents of California had been having dry weather for approximately two decades. Then, in December 1861, rain started and lasted for 43 days. In January 1862 there was catastrophic flooding in California. It is considered to be the largest flood on record in my state. The rain actually affected the entire west coast as well as portions of other states and Mexico, but California was hardest hit. It was a monster and is still studied today as the other “big one” that will hit California. Researchers feel mega rains such as occurred in 1862-62 will happen in California every 100-200 years.
By the way, that mega rain storm was followed by several years of severe drought. Hum, we seem to have seen this pattern before…..
Rain is good, rain is needed, mega storms not so much, and the last bit made me think of the sayings “doesn’t rain but it pours”
Yep, and it is pouring today!
Amazing contrasts in weather!
Well, you’d think CA would come up with a better system to collect rain since there is a pattern here.