Well, Blow Me Down

Wednesday after the long weekend, I was back on my bike, and riding to work.

Monday it was so nice, Jennifer and I rode up to the end of the New Bay Bridge trail.  They're behind schedule because we were supposed to have a completed trail to Yerba Buena and Treasure Island by October of 2015, but no the projection is Summer of 2016.  Most of the trail and path is visible, but it's nowhere near completion.

Wednesday there was a storm on it's way into the Bay Area, and it was blowing from the southeast.  And it was blowing at 18 miles per hour and gusting to over 30 mph.  I rode in a relatively low gear the whole way to BART.  And when I got to the platform, the train was just pulling away.  And I was worn out.

Today riding to BART there was a bit of wind, but it seemed like a cute, little child trying to be like it's big, strong father.

A Following Wind

So, last night I was awakened by the wind.  It had worked our window open from half a crank to nearly three cranks.  The breeze was a bit much, so I went ahead and closed the window completely.

This morning when I got up, it was still blowing, and I checked the weather to see what I'd be dealing with on my ride.

As it turns out 20 mph winds aren't so bad when they are predominantly a tailwind.  They're even better when you're going uphill.

Trust

Usually I follow Weather.com for my forecasts.

I’ve been following the Weather Channel since it was just 24 hours of Doppler radar.  On a rainy day, Dad and I could site forever, just watching the sweep of the radar change the precipitation pattern.  And if there was a tornado watch in affect?  We were rapt looking for that hook echo.

I’ve got the Weather.com app on my phone and have a couple bookmarks for my browser.

But today I get up in Santa Cruz, and I hear rain on the bathroom skylight.  I look out the window and I see rain.  What does Weather.com say?  It’s cloudy.  Cloudy until 8 this morning with the dun coming out later.

So I pull up the back-up, Wunderground.com.  Weather Underground says that it’s likely to rain until 3 PM today.  Now, yes, I’m pulling for rain because I can go home sooner, but still…  How do you get such discrepancies?

We also have a meteorologist working for PG&E who gives us periodic forecasts so that we can be prepared for days like today.

I have an acquaintance who is a meteorologist.  I met him when I bought a DSLR camera from him.  Later, I bought a tripod.  He get interviewed often by the Bay Area news shows.  I respect that there is a lot that goes into being a certified meteorologist as opposed to a weather girl in a tight top and skirt.  We all just wish we could be wrong as often as some forecasters are.

Why Did We Move?

So, I successfully rode my back to and from work yesterday, arriving safely home a sweaty mess.

Why?

Well, first of all, I’m still getting back into bicycling shape.  I lost some of my stamina after the accident and then having my bike stolen.  Things are getting better though.

Second of all, there’s this whole reason why living near the water is awesome.  Large bodies of water act as temperature buffers for the air around them.

It was in the mid-90s when I left Walnut Creek yesterday.  The BART car I chose to ride on had no air conditioning.  And it was about 75 degrees when I got off the train in Oakland.

A difference of 20 degrees is quite a shock when you step directly from one to another.

I have to say, I love my home.

Are you kidding me?

94 degrees?

Now I'm getting flashbacks of elementary school and the insane heat we had in the 70s.

Fascinating Weather

Yesterday's weather was exceptionally odd. I left the office at 3:30 to get to Costco to order a new box of contacts, and came out to the parking lot to see a low nearly black sky. Looking around, there were portions of sky to the west that were clear, bright, and blue, but what was over the east bay was ominous. Add to that the insane winds whipping the trees, and anywhere else in the country you could expect really nasty storms. I drove on, and only got some sprinkles.

After spending minimal time inside, I went out, bought gas, and drove home. Then it really rained on me. it reminded me of films of desert storms with the way it would taper off and then downpour even thought I was traveling in relatively a straight line.

I got home, changed, and went to the gym.

The drive was lightly rained on, and stopped by the time I got to the gym. it dried off while I was inside, but then when I was about 10 minutes from being done, it opened up again. While I'm walking to nowhere on the elliptical, I'm watching the waves of rain travel across the parking lot.

But the best part was the people all concern about their hair and clothes as they went in and came out of the gym. Now these are people who are already sweaty or planning on getting sweaty, and yet they are covering their hair and clothes (workout only that I saw). I had to laugh.

Then when I walked out to my car, I got to enjoy some rain and soft hail.

Finally as I was on my approach to home, I got to see that it had snowed on Mt. Diablo and the neighboring beak. And from my perspective there was a rainbow across the main peak. I wish I'd had a better camera than the crappy one on my camera at the time.

Weather - the Aftermath

Well, we got our well installed just before the rains came again. We drilled down, and got our samples during the first rains, and then set the well in between storms.

It ended up that the heaviest rains hit while driving back to the office from Santa Clara. Gotta love the people who are afraid of the rain, but won't get out of the HOV lane because they are willing to go 2 miles per hour faster than the cats in the regular lanes.

Then when I got home it hailed a bit. So glad that didn't happen while we were working.

* * *

And now, after looking at the weather forecast, it appears that the rain is lingering...

So there's a good chance it will rain tomorrow and Thursday.

Oh joy...

Weird Weather

So the temperature climbed today and the sun beat down. After weeks of cold and wind, it was physically hard on us to be in such warmth. Tempers got a little short due to dehydration and heat and stress when the motor for the rig's pump failed. Luckily we got the well grouted up, but we lost time trying to get the final bit of grout out of the pump.

They'll get the well box set tomorrow morning before we get on site, and then we'll get the second well installed. Barring any lightning. Should there be any, we'll have to shut down and pull double duty on Wednesday. I'm optimistic (yes, big surprise) that we'll get it down though, as the call for possible thunderstorms is for the afternoon.

Hopefully.

Raining

It is.

And I so optimistically brought my sunglasses in this morning...

Have you seen this weather?

And this is why I live in California. I don't have to live in fear of tornadoes. I don't have to shovel snow; I don't even have to see snow unless I feel like driving to it. I don't have to worry about hurricane season. And despite how many of my other statesmen feel, rain is a good thing.

I can remember spending hours in the basement the first time I lived outside of Louisville, Kentucky during the plague of tornadoes in the 70s. Luckily the basement was finished and nice, and I was too young to be really upset when the power went out. But remember my mother's fear of the possibility of the tornado, and her being afraid for my dad who was at work. We followed Dick Gilbert's constant updates on the paths of the tornadoes from his traffic helicopter.

The second time I was in Louisville we didn't really have any tornadoes that I remember, but when I was in Lexington for grad school and living with my aunt and cousin there was a tornado that skirted the southern portion of the city. My aunt's house didn't have basement, so to be safe, the three of us and Blackie the Whippet all crowded into the master bathroom which had no windows or outside walls. Now while I say "master bathroom" it was not really that big. Cousin Lee (over 6 feet tall and of stocky build) sat in the bathtub holding the dog, my aunt sat against the wall by the sink, and me? I got to sit against another wall with my legs straddling the toilet. Needless to say, Lee and I quickly got tired of this and got up to walk around. So where did we go? We went to the dining room with it's large sliding glass door and watched the lightning play across the sky. Nothing happened to us or the house, but all those thoughts always come to mind when people say, "Wouldn't you rather live somewhere cheaper? Maybe without earthquakes?"

To which I say, "Earthquakes may cause more destruction, but you can build for them to minimize the damage. And tornadoes have an annoying tendency to turn around to go for the houses that they missed."

And remember my profession: I'm a geologist. I like earthquakes. In the early 80s we had a bunch of earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay Area. Many of them were centered in Livermore near Lawrence National Laboratories. And what did they always show on the news? The plutonium stockpile. That's when I say it takes more than a rocket scientist or a nuclear physicist to intelligently plan for earthquakes.

I also remember going to the San Francisco Zoo and hearing all of the animals going berserk. We stopped for some food, and then went into the zoo. While we there a 5.4 (5.8?) quake hit. The liquor store next to the deli we ate at was on the news showing the broken bottles.

Then on October 17, 1989 at 5:00 PM where am I? Sacramento. Around 5:15 I get a call from a friend asking if my parents are okay, I tell him as far as I know, but thanks for asking. He says, that there was an earthquake south of San Francisco and the Bay Bridge had collapsed (yes, I know it didn't but we didn't know that). That's when the fun began. Dad had a cell phone and still couldn't get through. I ended up hearing from a family friend in Louisiana telling me he had heard from Dad and that he and mom were both okay. And did you know that Alaska's Long distance goes through California (or at least it used to). I had an aunt and uncle who were cut off until the circuits relaxed.

Then for Northridge, I was actually outside of Death Valley near Fort Irwin. No biggy there.

Now that I've been back in the Bay Area, I've felt a few, but there's been nothing big for a while. And still I say, I need not fear the green sky.