Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Rain from Mt. Shasta to SF Bay Area

I got up this morning and saw my daughter off to Oregon from Mt. Shasta where we were visiting. It was misting pretty hard from the first moment I woke up about 7 am and likely had started raining during the night. We decided to go up to Bunny flats to say good bye to the mountain so to speak. I thought I might return later in the day to go skiing with my friends. However, it was misting at about 34 to 38 degrees which started to make my legs feel very cold even through my jeans even though I had a jacket on. I decided we weren't going to ski today because it had switched from snow to rain an hour or two before we went up about 11:30 am. The large truck Snow blower we passed on the way up was going to remove any of the snow that dropped last night on Everitte memorial hiway up the mountain to Bunny Flats where the road is usually closed this time of year to cars and trucks.

At about 2 pm I decided to head home because skiing wouldn't likely be good until Saturday or Sunday and I needed to be home at least by Thursday this week. However, the Sierras and the Cascades in California are all getting snow today and likely through Thursday. (They say about 3 inches total of rain which usually equates to 3 feet of snow where cold enough when it comes down.)

I was pretty amazed at how consistent the storm was from 2pm when I left to when I reached the Bay area later. I had to use my windshield wipers in some form except for about 10 minutes the whole way back which was unusual. When it got dark there was a light that lit up about half the sky which I think might have been an electrical substation exploding from lightning or the weather (both). And later I saw regular lightning as well. Amazing amount of rain coming so quickly. Some areas are worried about flooding. Whenever we get too much rain too fast the extreme elevations (from sea level to over 14,000 feet so many places in California really can play havoc with people's lives in mud slides, flash flooding and the like here in California all over. So, whenever we receive 3 or more inches in a few days there are going to be problems somewhere because of all the altitude shifts all over the state which accentuate what water does when too much comes at once.

I was looking at a Radar map and the snow was especially hitting the Sierras around Yosemite National park and up into the Tuolumne area above Yosemite Valley. I hope all the hikers and climbers this time of year knew about the storm coming.

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