Saturday, April 6, 2024

The weather is changing: But what is it changing to? All over the planet

Weather

Is changing

a lot

In the 1980s there was 7 feet of snow at my A-Frame on my 2 1/2 acres of land at 4000 feet on Mt. Shasta. 

Then in 1992 there was 12 feet of snow in town and this likely was the year I skied on 40 feet of snow On Mt. Shasta.

Last year December 2022 until April 2023 there was more than 12 feet of snow nearby where I used to own 2 1/2 acres from 1980 until 1989 when we moved back from Hawaii then. I have one friend who owns a house and 2 1/2 acres of land that couldn't even see out his windows because of 12 feet or more of snow from about January 2023 until about April of 2023.  This year there was snow but not as deep as last year so he could see out his windows most of the time on the ground level. He built his upper level A-Frame style and then jacked it up and built another story under it but still had the A-Frame to shed the snow so he didn't have to shovel it off his roof ever.

Here where I live in 2023 from December of 2022 until April or May of 2023 there were at least 15 power outages often of 1 week or more. In the past, we have had power outages usually in January through march but usually only one which is a week or more long. this year 2024 we had about 5 to 7 power outages 1 day to 7 days or more.

This year we also had tornado Warnings bad enough to have us move into our bathroom (my daughter who was visiting us and my wife and I because we got a warning of an impending tornado near to us and a banging from the wind of our sliding glass doors and the flue to our chimney banging too. 

Then last weekend we got another Tornado WArning at about 1:30 AM I believe it was over the night of Friday to Saturday if I remember it correctly in Santa Barbara. When I checked the location of the funnel clouds they were traveling north from Carpenteria to Montecito. My wife says the land is flat enough there for tornadoes to form but not in the hills where we are now.

I guess what I'm trying to say is "It doesn't appear we are in a drought here in California anymore (at least for now).  There are people now stuck in Big Sur by the way because they had to shut Highway 1 down before Bixby Bridge (the famous one you see in postcards and movies). So, people are stuck now in Big Sur (for who knows how long unless they either hike out or find a 4 wheel drive road out across the Santa Lucia Mountains or they hire a helicopter or a boat to get them out of there now. So, tourists aren't there either so businesses are wondering whether they can stay in business in Big Sur too. The road is also closed south of Big Sur too so they are literally trapped there with no paved roads back to civilization.

Many places like the mountains above Santa Cruz people can no longer buy (or afford to buy) insurance for their homes that is less than 4000 to 6000 dollars a year (and that is on top of any mortgage payments or Property taxes here in California. So, more and more people (if they don't have their homes and land paid for might have to sell their land to really rich people who can afford to pay this kind of money to keep their homes and lands.

This is happening all over the country where people cannot afford to buy insurance because it is so out of reach it has become impractical or it just isn't available anywhere anyway.


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