In with the rain and out with the rain
It’s amazing what a little lot of rain will do for—and—to LA.
Yesterday, it rained all day. Its intensity, frequency, and duration varied, but at times the downpour was ferocious. People living here think neither the rain, nor cold weather bad weather should be permanently exported to the East Coast; and and all areas in between.
Interestingly, a friend of mine who grew up here, said that an annual rainy season used to be the norm in Southern California; and the millions of new California implants residents expect it to be sunny here 24/7/365. So thus was borne the urban myth of its “Always Sunny in Southern California.”
When the weather’s not perfect sunny here, people prefer to stay home. And Los Angelinos prefer to drive faster when it’s raining, not slower.
Ahhh, the complexities and idiosyncrasies of modern life.
At the local baseball field, the parking lot was empty, providing our local birds some down time on the field’s grass, gaining a much needed respite from homo sapiens, to eat and fly; although I suspect, that the birds don’t much care for hate the rain too.
Nowadays, I’m pretty sure most Angelinos positive everyone here never wants it to rain wants to pass a law banning both the rain and cold, want the rain to stop, because they don’t like it hate it; but the fact is that we really need it, as we’re in a Level 3 drought category–Translation is that we have no water.
With the rain, does come good things. Indeed, only 3 months ago, no land in California was drought free, but as of last week, 7.7% is now out of the drought.
Southern California is facing a water supply shortage for the third year in a row. Most of Los Angeles’ water supplies are imported, and the sources of this water are also impacted by drought and regulatory restrictions.
As a result, more water conservation is urgently needed.
An even more astounding fact is that:
3 months ago, 45.8% of California was either in a severe to an exceptional drought, but now, only 17.3% is in the same condition. I’ll be interested to see if the numbers change after this weekend’s rain. As previously mentioned, the “rainy” season is fast approaching, because January and February are traditionally the wettest months here.
Don’t get me wrong; I too want the rain to stop so “Sunny” Southern California can get back to “normal;” but I also want to see water flowing in our creeks and rivers again, and stored in our aquifers and reservoirs.
In the next few weeks, I’ll be going back to this point along the LA River and take another picture.
Travelin’ Local means knowing that there’s no such thing as utopia—but living and playing here make it pretty darn close to perfection. And for those of you reading this story and think that we’re spoiled, you’re damn right.
