First storm at dawn

Rain arrived last night, the first Pacific storm of the season to reach Southern California. At dawn, we are in a lull with the main part of the storm due in later this morning. Maybe even some thunder this afternoon. It is going to rain on the Rose Parade, which makes good TV if nothing else.

We need the rain. Winter is the rainy season on this coastal desert next to the Pacific. In October, Southern Californians get their lawnmowers out of the garage. After 34 years in San Diego, I still can’t get used to that. But the season is starting late this year. November and December were sunny and warm, and everything green was drying out. We will get rain until March or so, then the weathermen won’t have anything to do until fall.

The best storms here form way up in the Gulf of Alaska, then sweep southward across the Pacific to be steered by the jet stream into the northwest (where most of the weather goes) or farther south into California. The San Francisco and Napa Valley areas have been pounded all week by storms riding a jet stream that only over the weekend started to dip south toward us. Ocean temperatures have an effect on the storms and their direction. When the famous El Nino effect is present, the ocean, which is normally cool to cold off Southern California, warms a few degrees, and the warmth is a storm magnet. An El Nino can bring us a lot of storminess. This isn’t an El Nino year.

You can’t see it, but this storm is also very windy, which drives up the cozy quotient. Today will be a good day for glowing hearths and football games.