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Winter in Southern California
So Cal Winter Nov 2011
What a way to begin winter, but still it's better than the weather I left behind in Boston. Most of this week, every night its dipped to the 30's. Brrrrrrrrr. This was even before the rains came. My house is a typical one family built in the 50's. At the time the best windows available were installed, now I'm told they just leak air. The heater is a wall unit, installed in the middle of the house between the living room and the hall leading to the bedrooms. Why is this relevant? That's why I sleep with 4 blankets on my bed at night, and wear sweats as PJ's. One of my blankets is wool, from LL.Bean, because I want to be warm. Thick socks are mandatory for getting a good nights sleep, otherwise I wake up in the middle of the night, and need to get a pair and put them on.
So how exactly has the weather been? There was a wind storm 2 weeks ago in Pasadena, and the entire San Gabriel Valley area was affected. It took a week for the area to have their electricity restored. They are north east, about an hour away from LA, Now this past week a cold front came in. As I said it dropped to the 30's every night, daytime highs anywhere from 50 to 68 degrees. Sunday night the rains began. I read we had an inch in the greater LA area. It was one of those storms I remembered from Boston. Out driving, doing errands, the visibility was limited at times to the red lights on the car 2 lengths ahead of me. Fortunately that only lasted a few minutes at a time, mostly it was just a steady downpour. Antelope Valley, 1 1/2 hours north of LA got a dusting of snow. At 5000 feet, there was an expectation of 10 inches of snow. Heading north out of LA on Route 5, the Cajon pass is at 5000 feet, and at times the traffic report announces it is closed until further notice. I've driven those passes more than once, my kids are amazed at my skill, but I did cut my teeth driving in Boston.
Some mornings when I have an early work call, at 530 am, there has been a layer of frost on the grass, and my car needs the windshield cleaned, and the defrosters on high.
At 4 pm yesterday my patio thermometer said 46 degrees, it was drizzling, the house was at 66 with no heat turned on. After making a pot of tea, on a gas stove, the kitchen was at 68. Today, it was nice to wake up to blue sky peeping through the clouds. Now at noon the patio says its 58, and its mostly sunny. The heat in the house is turned off. My son is trekking out to the garage attached to the house, to do his laundry. We don't have a connecting door, so it's out the front, down the 3 steps, and turn into the garage. The front patio roof doesn't extend the whole distance, so when they bring in the clothes in the rain, they do get damp again.
That's my life in So Cal.