Tag Archives: Extreme weather

Hurricane Hilary’s Aftermath

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Hilary visited Southern California all day on Sunday. I took a walk this morning to survey any damage and this is what I discovered…

Even though we had nearly three inches of rain, there was no flooding and it looks like my garden was able to drink in all that water. My plants were so thirsty!

The highest wind gust was about fifty mph, not enough to fell any trees or big branches. There’s a lot of cleanup from leaves, but no deck furniture was damaged.

I didn’t lose power like many others and I’m grateful for that.

I’m left with a bathtub of water which I’ll save for the garden since there’s no rain in the forecast.

Other parts of San Diego experienced far worse. There was extensive flooding and giant eucalyptus trees falling on houses. The mountains and the desert didn’t fare so well either, and it’s going to take a lot of cleanup to restore roads and infrastructure.

In the middle of the storm, there was a big earthquake in Ojai (near Ventura), along with clusters of decent-sized aftershocks. Social media coined a new word; hurriquake–which absolutely describes our crazy weather.

It’s back to normal now, but will always be another date for the history books; the day Hurricane Hilary came to town.
🌀1858
🌀1939
🌀2023

Snow in Southern California?

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A few days ago, we had a special weather alert telling us it actually might SNOW on the beach!

The temp dropped significantly. It had been raining off and on all day and I was SO hopeful, as excited as a first grader; sadly it didn’t snow here.

There were a few flakes several miles up the coast, and measurable snow just a bit inland, but nothing at Casa de Enchanted Seashells.

While I waited in anticipation for SNOW, I looked off in the distance and snapped this photo from my deck.

The perspective is a bit skewed as the apartments aren’t that close. They’re more than a few blocks away and the mountains are further than they appear here, too, actually about fifty miles east. I think it’s because I used a different camera lens and setting.

If you ignore the ugly and invasive apartments defiling my view, I think that’s Palomar Mountain covered in snow. It could also be the Lagunas; regardless, they both received several feet of snow while we had more than four inches of rain.

March certainly came in like a lion!