Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts

Sunday, December 5, 2021

Foggy Morning At Eaton Canyon

Seems we rarely get much fog around here. I enjoy it when we do.  So, when I saw it was foggy early yesterday morning, I took the dog and headed over to Eaton Canyon for little hike.  When we started out it was see-your-breath cold and fog draped the mountainsides.  


 After a while, the fog started to clear.  If you just stay on the trail and keep your eyes open, you will find spots in Eaton Canyon that are simply beautiful.

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Bird Flies Over the Rainbow in East Pasadena


This phenomenon was captured last month.  

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

January sky


 Since it never (or rarely) rains in California, we mostly have to trudge along with blue skies.  Sometimes, though, we get treated to a beautiful sunset.    

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Snow in East Pasadena

Snow in Pasadena?   Didn't last long, but that is what it was.    You need to enlarge the video to get the full effect.   

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Remembering Winter Rains


Before we get too far into summer, I wanted to recall the winter rains.   We rarely get rainbows here, but with all  the rain, we had them in February.  



Saturday, January 14, 2017

Sunrise Over East Pasadena


Sunrise earlier this week, looking east from my office near Lake Ave. and Colorado Blvd.  Among the many benefits of last week's clouds and rain.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Windstorm Damage

No kidding.

Eucalyptus trees blew down on Sierra Madre Villa.  Six trees all probably more than 100 yeas old.  As you can tell from the trunks, these were very big trees.   

The trees just fell over and were strewn along the road nearly end to end..  It was sad, strange and fascinating all at the same time to walk the length of these giant trees, from roots to the tree tops.  And, standing in the middle of these trees there was this powerful scent of Eucalyptus.  

Tree fell knocking down power lines and a power pole on Sierra Madre Blvd.  There was a Channel 2 news van parked on the median while I drove past. 

Oak tree uprooted and fallen on van.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Get Out of Your Car and Take the Picture

A couple of days ago I was sitting in the Hastings shopping center parking lot waiting for my son to come out of the store.   Fortunately I had my camera with me and stepped out of the car to take this shot.   Turned out there were others with the same idea.  A woman parked her car few rows over and jumped out with her camera to take a picture.   Then, I saw a guy put his shopping bags down to get a shot with his cell phone.   Then, on the way home we saw someone set up on the Sierra Madre Blvd. median with a tripod facing west for pictures. 

It's always fun to see people taking pictures.  Not so much to watch them, but to try to see what they see that is so interesting.   There was no mystery here.   Lately we've had spectacular clouds and sky well worth some pictures.      

Monday, September 5, 2011

Pasadena Blogging and the Pasadena Sky

 The last two nights have given spectacular views in the Pasadena sky.   The photo above is of the international space station as it orbited over us Saturday night about 8 pm.  It was fascinating to watch. I was surprised at how fast it moved and how different it was from stars or planes or anything else in the sky.  Pretty amazing stuff when you think that there's a crew of six orbiting the earth and living up there.  The  NASA website has a nice little feature that allows you to find out when the space station passes over a particular town.   The station will pass over us again tonight (Monday) at 7:47 pm.

Because of the heavy cloud cover and rain, we could not see the space station last night. 

Which brings me to our weird weather.   The weather started changing late yesterday afternoon.  A few raindrops fell and I spotted this rainbow to the east.   We don't see a lot of rainbows around here, so I ran to grab my camera and got this shot before the rainbow was gone.  Within an hour, rain was falling and then came some good rounds of thunder and lightening.    Thunderstorms are forecast for today.  Strange weather for us.

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With all this talk about sky, it seems an appropriate time to say thank you and best wishes to a departing Pasadena blogger -- Ben Wideman of the sky is big in pasadena.   I followed his daily photo blog for much of its four year run.  His blog frequently showed me aspects of my city that I hadn't seen or appreciated.  In particular, his photos of City Hall were spectacular as were his shots of the Colorado Street Bridge and, of course, the local sky..   In his blog's last month, he listed his top 20 positive and top 10 negative things about our fair city.  It was interesting to see the final perspective of this young Canadian who spent four years here preparing for the ministry.   Friends and City Hall were his top two positive things; disparity between rich and poor and smog were his top two negatives.  I'll miss Ben's photos and commentary and wish him and his family well.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Independence Day - Fireworks and Thunder

We celebrated Independence Day in the traditional fashion -- BBQ and fireworks.  What seemed odd, though, was the weather.   July heat is not news.  But, it sure seems that we are getting a lot more humidity than we used to.   It was hot and cloudy last night out in Chino (where fireworks are legal and sold on nearly every corner).   As we waited for the sun to set, it looked like someone to the west was getting rain.   

Monday, March 28, 2011

Here Comes the Sun


    We're nearing the end of March and it looks like the sun is on its way.   Forecast is for 87 degrees by Thursday.  

    The sun seems right on schedule.  In average years we get 4 to 5 inches of rain a month from January through March.  Then, we get around an inch in April before easing into the long dry season.   

     I like this time of year.  The hills and mountains are green.  Fruit trees are in bloom and bees are buzzing.  Seems like everything is growing.   Even the weeds.  Which reminds me to that we need to get out and finish  preparing an area for our spring garden.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Snow down to 500 feet?

San Gabriel Valley ca. 1890
Pasadena Cal: C.J. Randall
Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento


The San Gabriel Mountains, our city's dominant scenic assets, are spectacular when snow capped. But, what if it snowed in the city too? I just heard on the radio that the snow level tomorrow might get down to 1,000 - 1,500 feet. Then, I read where snow might go down to 500 feet elevation.

This from Accuweather: "Snow is on tap for even some valleys of the L.A. Basin this weekend.... Saturday is when rain showers in the L.A. Basin are expected to start mixing with and changing to snow at elevations down to 1,000 to 1,500 feet. However, in a heavier shower Saturday afternoon or evening, snow could fall all the way down to areas at 500 feet in elevation, including some valleys."

So what is Pasadena's elevation? Well, the elevation at City Hall is 864 feet above sea level. But, elevations on the city's north-western and north-eastern edges exceed 1,000 feet. Will we get snow?

Update 8:20 am Saturday morning:   Heavy rain last night and this morning, but no sign of snow.  For now, mountains are covered in clouds.  We have intermittent sun.  Cable was down until moments ago.

From this morning's LA Times:  "The storm was expected to pass into Southern California around sunrise Saturday, bringing snow to levels as low as 1,500 feet. Snowflakes could fall on the the Santa Monica Mountains, in the Antelope and the Santa Clarita valleys, and in the higher elevations on the northern edge of the San Fernando Valley...  As for foothill communities like La Crescenta and Altadena, "absolutely, they'll be getting some snow for sure, at least a dusting of it," [meteorologist Curt] Kaplan said.

Update 9:30 am:    Had a blast of hail about an hour ago.  Usually the hail melts away when it hits the ground, but this stuff is staying and we have white drifts of hail around the yard and on the roof.  Being southern Californians, we naturally ran around outside while the hail fell.  I saw neighbors doing the same.   The white on the ground look like snow, but alas is hail. 

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Over the Fence at Sunset

Roof tops, palm trees, some power lines, a few oaks and a January sky at sunset.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Let it Rain -- at least a little

This photo, taken this evening from Gwinn Park (on Orange Grove just west of Eaton Wash), shows the park's pines in the foreground and Mt. Wilson in the background with dark clouds gathered around. I saw quite a bit of lightening against the mountains and to the west.

Oh, there was a light rain at the park as I took this shot. Ahhhhh, a cool respite from all the recent heat.

Very, very unusual weather we're having.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Hot

The Weather Channel on my computer says it reached 105 degrees -- just a few degrees shy of the record for the day of 108 hit in 1963. But my car thinks it hit 112 degrees.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Hail

The hail in the photo goes back to January '09. I remember running around in front of the house with hail bouncing all around me and gathering enough of the cold icy stuff for this picture. I posted this a year ago when temps reached 102 and seems a good fit today too.

It has really been hot. Today Accuweather has us reaching 98 with a feel like temp of 101. An Excessive Heat Warning has issued for the San Gabriel Valley due to high heat and humidity.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Triple Digits and Rain

According to Accuweather, it got up to a sweltering 101 today. Heard thunder in the late afternoon, got a bit of a rainbow as the day edged into dusk and honest to goodness raindrops in July by 8 pm. Have to look hard, but there's a rainbow in that picture.

Average high for July 15 is 90. The record high for the day was 104 in 1930. Hot again tomorrow.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Cool Weather

As evening approached yesterday, it was cool and overcast. Sunlight off clouds to the east was spectacular

Seems like it has been unusually cool and overcast for most of July. The Fourth is generally blistering, but this year it reached only 80 degrees. The high for last Wednesday and Thursday was only 76 and yesterday reached up to 83 degrees.

So, I went to Accuweather to check on normal temps for this time of year. Turns out that historical averages for the first couple weeks of July are in the high 80's and on July 15 the average edges over to 90 degrees. So you know what's coming up, average temperatures stay at 90 to 91 for the rest of July, all of August and the first week of September. We generally have a few days where high hovers around 100.

I like the cool, but I think it's slowing things in the garden. Tomatoes are growing much slower than last year. It will get hotter here in all too short a time. The forecast for next week moves us into the 90's.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

It Never Rains

Paradise.

The Midwesterners who journeyed west to found Pasadena were sure they had found it -- paradise that is. They were amazed that flowers bloomed in winter and you could pick oranges off the tree. Seems natural to want to share such a place with others. So, in 1890, the enterprising members of the Valley Hunt Club decided to start a parade to "tell the world about our paradise" (and maybe sell some land). The notion was to promote southern California and attract Easterners to move here. Climate was the big draw.

So, for fun, I compared our weather today with that of the hometowns of the four teams here for bowl games. Today, Pasadena's weather is going to be clear with a high of 74 and projections for high 70's this weekend. By contrast, it is snowing in Columbus, Ohio with a high in the low 20's and colder weather forecast for the weekend. It's better in Tuscaloosa -- they get rain and snow with a high in the 30's and in Austin, where they get 41 degrees with 20-30 mph winds. Eugene is on the west coast and doesn't really count, but duckland will get up to a cool 51 with some showers.

Seems an easy sell. Why live there when you could live here? For decades upon decades, we've assumed that, once the folks back east get a load of our weather, they would all want to move here.

And they did. People moved here in droves. Back in 1890 when this whole parade thing started, Pasadena's population was pushing 5,000. As of 2007, the census folks estimate the city's population at 143,000.

But, you know, as good as the weather is, I think it was mostly work that really drew people to California. Work is also what keeps people here. It's not much use to live in paradise if you can't find work and pay your bills.

That's been the story in my own family. My great-grandfather on one side and my grandfather on the other side moved here for work. One came to California to work in construction and the other in the orchards. For a century, California's seemingly limitless resources and opportunities sustained each generation. That is, until my generation.

Times have changed. We don't like to think about it, but California is not the land of opportunity it once was. I've seen friends move out of state for a better life. I've seen family leave to find work. And I read regularly about how California has lost its appeal.

In fact, much has been written of the domestic migration out of California over the last decade. This, and population movement in general, is a regular topic on the NewGeography blog. They report that over the last decade a net 1.5 million people moved out of California to other states. Over the same period, Texas and Alabama saw net population growth as the result of domestic migration.

Then there's this interesting little thought. We might be seeing Rose Bowl history tonight. I haven't done an exhaustive search on this, but this game may mark the first time Rose Bowl teams have hailed from two states that are outpacing California in domestic migration.

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Still, it seems like paradise here. It is a sunny January day. We have the mountains behind us and the beach to our west. Flowers are in bloom. Orange and lemon trees dot the neighborhoods. There is beauty upon beauty, if you take a moment to look.

On the other hand, the stories of friends and family and the migration statistics are real. Over the last decade, the state seems to have bumped up against something. Maybe it's the economy. Maybe it's the schools or cost of living, or traffic. Maybe it is all a temporary thing -- coming changes will push the state to new levels of luster and appeal.

Or maybe, it's just that even paradise has its limits.