I woke up about 3 AM to what at first I thought was a transformer exploding. Our dog who hasn't seen weather like this much in her life because she is only 14 or 15 months old so far here in California started barking and wouldn't shut up for an hour or two because it wasn't a transformer blowing up outside it was lightning and thunder. So, our Blue Merle Corgi was sort of out of her mind for a couple of hours of lightning and heavy rain last night. It was predicted by the weather men too but often things like this are predicted for parts of California but often don't manifest as lightning or thunder (at least the last 10 years or so). So, it happened. I was just watching local noon news and found out from photos that snow had fallen a lot in the Santa Cruz mountains between the City of Santa Cruz on the Coast and the San Jose and San Francisco area which was interesting because it looked like they got at least 3 inches or more of snow which was very picturesque to look at. Other mountains like the Santa Lucias around Big Sur had snow as well on top so likely 3000 to 4000 feet in elevation. The lightning like I said continued for several hours along with heavy rain very early this morning. And now about 8 or 9 hours later it is 1pm Wednesday and it was still raining off and on as recently as 1/2 hour ago but now there is a little sunlight for the first time today so far coming off the ocean.
The other interesting thing is a full grown redwood tree exploded from lightning in the Santa Cruz mountains and exploded through a Living room window and broke it so on the news they showed pictures of them cleaning up the pieces of large living room window and pieces of the tree in the living room. Luckily people likely were asleep when this happened in a bedroom away from the living room so no one had to go to the hospital. They just had to clean up the mess from the broken glass and pieces of exploded redwood tree from the lightning from their living room and to clean up any rainfall that came in through the broken living room window.
We also have a Flash Flood watch in several areas right now so hopefully no more people will be pinned in their houses from mud slides this time like they were in late January when the Atmospheric River wiped out 25 homes near where the River fire was near Salinas. River Road once again is getting mud slides right now from this storm as well it looks like.
In some places the news lady on scene said that the mud is now taller than the lady reporting the latest mud flows around River Road. So to keep River Road open heavy equipment has been there all morning today hauling the mud away so bigger trucks can still get through on the road still through the mud and debris there.
Snow levels are still dropping down to around 2000 feet which means where we live here on the coast that many mountains like the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Santa Lucia Mountains above Big Sur which are some of the ranges of the Coastal range there could be snow if you drive up there or live up there so be careful especially if you don't have an all wheel drive or 4 wheel drive vehicle or aren't used to driving in snow or ice. And remember one of the most dangerous things can be driving downhill on snow or ice with a front wheel drive vehicle. If you have a hand brake you should push the button in while pulling it to straighten out your vehicle if your vehicle goes sideways from the front wheel drive holding back through the engine. So, the best way to brake in snow going downhill with a front wheel drive is your hand brake with the button pushed in so you can easily release it. But, if you don't think you can handle this just don't drive in the snow unless it is a complete emergency and even then be careful.
When you have a hand brake in your vehicle it is an emergency brake that normally controls the emergency brake on the right rear brake drum or disc brakes in most vehicles. So, since only one brake is engaging when you do this you have to compensate for only one brake braking to straighten your car or truck back out from sideways when heading downhill.
Most cars and trucks except antiques no longer have drum brakes but only disc brakes. They do this to avoid brake fade down long hills which used to cause Semi Truck Drivers to die when their brakes went out a lot in the 1960s and before when I was young and growing up. Especially places like the Grape Vine of Interstate 5 from Los Angeles up into the San Joaquin Valley this happened a lot and also before they put in the freeway between Redding and Mt. Shasta people died a lot in big trucks before about 1960 then too.
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