The "weather watches" on all local tv stations in which the weather reporters solemnly, gravely tell us of the dangerous rains coming to Los Angeles; It's too cold; It shouldn't be raining this much in November; This is unusual for this time of year; This isn't the weather I signed up for when I moved to Los Angeles. Even CNN has their anchors soberly commenting on the impending rainstorms up and down the California coast while flashing on a California map.
People, you've learned a fact of Angeleno life: it rains, often heavily in southern California. In the mountains and high deserts, it snows most every year. In Los Angeles, once every 30 years, there'll be measurable snow on the ground, sometimes a foot of snow. That's something the Greater Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau doesn't want you to know.
The Los Angeles River is not a concrete ditch. It might look like it. Some parts of it have trees and grass growing inside it to make you think a pretty nothing of a stream is returning to its original state but the river has always http://www.youtube.com/embed/piRer4CFoWQ been and continues to be the outpouring of massive amounts of rain that hit Los Angeles, usually before Halloween and lasting until early April. Like most Americans, Angeleno's memories can be very short. Only last year did we have one of the heaviest rainfalls ever
http://www.youtube.com/embed/9Z9OI3s5iG0. This is not merely global warming or climate change. El Nino and La Nina are bywords of life in Los Angeles. These alternate 7-year cycles bring chains of record rainstorms, flooding, and snowstorms. They are the lifeblood of all 17 million of us who live in the Los Angeles area to allow us and the neverending supply of newcomers to live the California lifestyle that films and fiction have created.
Along with Standard Oil and General Tire killing off the Red Car and all L. A. women looking like Pam Anderson on "Baywatch" along Santa Monica Beach, another long-running L. A. myth is that Los Angeles is a desert and would have stayed a desert without importing water. Go back to Gaspar de Portola's journal description of the San Fernando Valley (hot, dry desert that so many people believe it is) when he and Father Serra first walked through it in 1769, claiming the land for Spain, "...We came upon a valley so full of oaks and junipers that we couldn't see the sun for miles upon miles, so restful and pleasant was our journey through it..." The San Fernando Valley, covered with oaks and junipers? It was.
Rodeo Drive wasn't called Rodeo Drive because either rodeos were held there or because an early fashion designer named Rodeo opened the first store there. Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas was one of the richest and longest-lasting ranchos and prime Beverly Hills real estate not because movie stars were moving there but because of a group of springs that opened up water to the intersection of Sunset Blvd. and Beverly Drive, right where the Beverly Hills Hotel is today, provided abundant water for settlement. Slauson Creek, Ballona Creek, Rio Hondo, the San Gabriel River, Big Dalton Wash, Pacoima Creek. These are not the hallmarks of a desert. The Los Angeles River used to receive so much rainfall that the river jumped its banks, spilled over and created the riverbed it has today. It's old riverbed we now know as Ballona Creek. Most streams in and around L. A. still run in the very dry summers in Southern California, even if just a trickle.
The San Fernando Valley is hot because so many people moved here: the oaks, junipers, and the wildlife it supported were removed and paved over, denuding the land and making it hotter for people to live. The same is true for all of the Los Angeles Basin, which used to support forests, abundant game, and a lot of bodies of water before land developers did to it what was done to the Valley. It became a desert by land development until city governments began planting trees and residents added their own gardens to the mix.
Los Angeles has a Mediterranean semi-arid climate. That means hot dry summers, mild fall and spring weather, and mild winters, though very wet ones and often cold enough to bring on weeks of sweaters and coats (although no matter how cold it gets, transplants from the East Coast have created L. A. cold weather gear: down jackets, ski hats, and flip flops).
Yes, the sun is out most days of the year. Yes, we can have 85 degree clear weather on Christmas Day and New Year's Day that tricks people into believing Los Angeles is a sun-drenched paradise with no other weather. Guess again!
The Land of Eternal Summer also sees its ground covered with snow, approximately every 25 years. My parents and other relatives would comment about the Great Snowfall of 1949, when they threw snowballs at each other and recorded it in photographs. Pecos Bill's BBQ on Victory Blvd., near Western Ave. in Glendale still has photos that it's founder took of the snow surrounding his business in 1949. By the way, some of the best bbq in this city can still be found there. I kept waiting and waiting for the next snowfall. My grandmother had told me about the 1931 snowfall that actually shut down some roads in the city. By my calculations, I would expect snow in Los Angeles approximately every 20 years. 1969 came and went. So did 1979. I thought the snowfall was a great big myth until February, 1987, there was a Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photo of snow patches on the sand at Huntington Beach. There was a film of snow on my car and those of everyone on my block. Within two hours of it falling, it melted but it was snowfall.
One of the joys of living in Los Angeles is the beautiful, warm days with clear skies that let you see Catalina Island from Mt. Wilson, fall foliage from the native willow and cottonwood trees in the canyons, and the lush green mountainsides with wild mustard yellow and fire-engine orange poppies carpeting those mountains. It happens every late fall-through early spring and it's a gorgeous sight to behold. Skater boys, club hounds, aspiring actors, musicians, and anyone describing themselves as trendy and living from Silver Lake west, realize the beauty that we Angelenos are given at this time of year is here for everyone to enjoy and that it comes from the sometimes heavy, cold rains that mark our rainy season, which usually runs from just before Halloween to just after Easter, though we can get occasional tropical storms during the summer. Next time you're "hit unaware" by the rain and you don't understand why there's so much rain, remember, it rains (and snows) in Los Angeles. That's something I'll always "sign up" for, although I only want to enjoy the rain from the comfort and reclined position of my bed looking out the window and not on the 405-10 Interchange.
People, you've learned a fact of Angeleno life: it rains, often heavily in southern California. In the mountains and high deserts, it snows most every year. In Los Angeles, once every 30 years, there'll be measurable snow on the ground, sometimes a foot of snow. That's something the Greater Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau doesn't want you to know.
The Los Angeles River is not a concrete ditch. It might look like it. Some parts of it have trees and grass growing inside it to make you think a pretty nothing of a stream is returning to its original state but the river has always http://www.youtube.com/embed/piRer4CFoWQ been and continues to be the outpouring of massive amounts of rain that hit Los Angeles, usually before Halloween and lasting until early April. Like most Americans, Angeleno's memories can be very short. Only last year did we have one of the heaviest rainfalls ever
http://www.youtube.com/embed/9Z9OI3s5iG0. This is not merely global warming or climate change. El Nino and La Nina are bywords of life in Los Angeles. These alternate 7-year cycles bring chains of record rainstorms, flooding, and snowstorms. They are the lifeblood of all 17 million of us who live in the Los Angeles area to allow us and the neverending supply of newcomers to live the California lifestyle that films and fiction have created.
Along with Standard Oil and General Tire killing off the Red Car and all L. A. women looking like Pam Anderson on "Baywatch" along Santa Monica Beach, another long-running L. A. myth is that Los Angeles is a desert and would have stayed a desert without importing water. Go back to Gaspar de Portola's journal description of the San Fernando Valley (hot, dry desert that so many people believe it is) when he and Father Serra first walked through it in 1769, claiming the land for Spain, "...We came upon a valley so full of oaks and junipers that we couldn't see the sun for miles upon miles, so restful and pleasant was our journey through it..." The San Fernando Valley, covered with oaks and junipers? It was.
Rodeo Drive wasn't called Rodeo Drive because either rodeos were held there or because an early fashion designer named Rodeo opened the first store there. Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas was one of the richest and longest-lasting ranchos and prime Beverly Hills real estate not because movie stars were moving there but because of a group of springs that opened up water to the intersection of Sunset Blvd. and Beverly Drive, right where the Beverly Hills Hotel is today, provided abundant water for settlement. Slauson Creek, Ballona Creek, Rio Hondo, the San Gabriel River, Big Dalton Wash, Pacoima Creek. These are not the hallmarks of a desert. The Los Angeles River used to receive so much rainfall that the river jumped its banks, spilled over and created the riverbed it has today. It's old riverbed we now know as Ballona Creek. Most streams in and around L. A. still run in the very dry summers in Southern California, even if just a trickle.
The San Fernando Valley is hot because so many people moved here: the oaks, junipers, and the wildlife it supported were removed and paved over, denuding the land and making it hotter for people to live. The same is true for all of the Los Angeles Basin, which used to support forests, abundant game, and a lot of bodies of water before land developers did to it what was done to the Valley. It became a desert by land development until city governments began planting trees and residents added their own gardens to the mix.
Los Angeles has a Mediterranean semi-arid climate. That means hot dry summers, mild fall and spring weather, and mild winters, though very wet ones and often cold enough to bring on weeks of sweaters and coats (although no matter how cold it gets, transplants from the East Coast have created L. A. cold weather gear: down jackets, ski hats, and flip flops).
Yes, the sun is out most days of the year. Yes, we can have 85 degree clear weather on Christmas Day and New Year's Day that tricks people into believing Los Angeles is a sun-drenched paradise with no other weather. Guess again!
The Land of Eternal Summer also sees its ground covered with snow, approximately every 25 years. My parents and other relatives would comment about the Great Snowfall of 1949, when they threw snowballs at each other and recorded it in photographs. Pecos Bill's BBQ on Victory Blvd., near Western Ave. in Glendale still has photos that it's founder took of the snow surrounding his business in 1949. By the way, some of the best bbq in this city can still be found there. I kept waiting and waiting for the next snowfall. My grandmother had told me about the 1931 snowfall that actually shut down some roads in the city. By my calculations, I would expect snow in Los Angeles approximately every 20 years. 1969 came and went. So did 1979. I thought the snowfall was a great big myth until February, 1987, there was a Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photo of snow patches on the sand at Huntington Beach. There was a film of snow on my car and those of everyone on my block. Within two hours of it falling, it melted but it was snowfall.
One of the joys of living in Los Angeles is the beautiful, warm days with clear skies that let you see Catalina Island from Mt. Wilson, fall foliage from the native willow and cottonwood trees in the canyons, and the lush green mountainsides with wild mustard yellow and fire-engine orange poppies carpeting those mountains. It happens every late fall-through early spring and it's a gorgeous sight to behold. Skater boys, club hounds, aspiring actors, musicians, and anyone describing themselves as trendy and living from Silver Lake west, realize the beauty that we Angelenos are given at this time of year is here for everyone to enjoy and that it comes from the sometimes heavy, cold rains that mark our rainy season, which usually runs from just before Halloween to just after Easter, though we can get occasional tropical storms during the summer. Next time you're "hit unaware" by the rain and you don't understand why there's so much rain, remember, it rains (and snows) in Los Angeles. That's something I'll always "sign up" for, although I only want to enjoy the rain from the comfort and reclined position of my bed looking out the window and not on the 405-10 Interchange.
