After almost 20 years of Drought in California we have had the last two years of storms

Last year we had 15 Atmospheric Rivers hitting with long bouts with power outages and 50 to 100 pound rocks thrown hundreds of yards onto roads and through fences from the ferocious storms on the ocean and there was a big change to the coastline in California.

This year it hasn't been as intense as when those storms hit. However, a few of the atmospheric rivers were really something like the recent one that dropped (all by itself) 10.37 inches of rain onto San Marco Pass above Santa Barbara within about 15 hours, closed the Santa Barbara Airport because it had turned into a lake, brought down many trees and even Palm trees thrown into the ocean at Refugio Beach State park and closed sections of Highway 101 which is the coastal freeway from San Francisco to Los Angeles and also goes all the way to the Oregon border here in California as well.

I went into a local Santa Barbara market and realized just how upset people were from what is happening here in Southern California. This is partly because the weather is mostly sunny or at most cloudy most of the year. So, Rain is always an exception. But there is also a saying which is: "It's always sunny in California but when it rains it Pours!" which is a good description of just how extreme it can get here when it does rain where houses and hillsides often are washed away and homes fall off of cliffs from the storms along the coast too.

So, these last two years have really been something to watch for Californians and have really scared a lot of people here pretty bad, maybe not as bad as the drought. But, now they are scared in a whole new way which has been rarer since around 2000 here in California.