Dam good thing . The suffering aside . Because of the strength of the rain fall ; but California needed the rain .
But not all at once. Where I live, we are at about twice normal rainfall for this point in the season. (It's raining right now.) No matter what happens doing forward, it's going to be a very wet year. That results in mudslides, trees toppling, localized flooding and all kinds of problems. Something like ten feet of snow has fallen in some parts of the Sierras, which has closed roads and increased avalanche risks. It represents flooding risks when it melts. A couple of years ago all the talk was about the state's extended drought, and speculation (that's all it was) was that drought (which had lasted several years) was the new normal, here to stay due to climate change. But now the recent drought is history, reservoirs are back in the normal range, even topping in some cases, and the real lesson is that the state is subject to tremendous natural variations in precipitation from year to year. People need to be aware that rain can vary from zero to Biblical and plan accordingly. The rest of North America seems to me to be enjoying a relatively mild winter. It's 46 in New York City right now and 39 in Toronto. (10 am their time.) Perhaps the excessive California rainfall is associated with that.
Rain and fog and rain and drizzle and rain and fog in Iowa this past week. Muddy dog footprints on my cherrywood floor. It is foggy now. We are living in a cloud.
It isn't just rain. Big 35 foot storm waves tore apart the locally-famous SS Palo Alto, better known as 'the cement ship' in Santa Cruz. The SS Palo Alto was an oil tanker with a concrete hull, constructed in 1919 in an Oakland shipyard. It was completed too late to see action in World War I, and I guess that it wasn't really efficient for civilian use. Later it was sailed to Santa Cruz and sunk in a shallow spot so that it sat on the bottom with a pier built out to it and a restaurant/nightclub was built on top of it. It was the nightlife place to be for a while back in the day. Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey used to play in the 'Rainbow Ballroom' there. Then the depression hit and it went broke. Finally the state bought it in 1936 for one dollar. It remained a fishing spot and it was always popular with kids to explore. The state didn't maintain it and over time it deteriorated, and finally it was judged too dangerous and declared off limits to the public. But it still sat out there, a local landmark. http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/01/...hip-wont-be-dynamited-or-repaired-state-says/ Well, the recent storms finally broke it into pieces. The state says that they won't dynamite it or try to remove it and unless it becomes a danger to the public, they will just let nature take its course. I guess that as far as the ocean is concerned, cement if just more rock for it to grind down and erode. It's been doing that to the cliffs for eons.
