Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Wednesday Vignette: Anticipation

Weather forecasters have been predicting rain for SoCal for several days now.  I originally tuned the reports out, not wanting to get my hopes up.  We haven't had any real rain since late March and, when I initially reviewed the extended forecasts, rain appeared improbable until December.  As reports of rain continued into this week, I became more invested in the possibility.

Yesterday, I watched as clouds associated with Tropical Storm Rosa passed us by.

View of Angel's Gate, the entrance to the Los Angeles Harbor, from my back garden late yesterday afternoon


Rosa dropped lots of rain on northwestern Mexico and Arizona with nothing left for us but the forecasters said that a separate system had a 70% chance of delivering rain to Southern California on Wednesday.  This morning's sky was full of promising clouds.



According to the early morning weather reports, it was raining in Santa Barbara to the north of us and rain was expected to reach us around 10am.  It didn't.  I checked updated reports by two different weather services, both of which then showed rain arriving around 2pm.  It didn't.  Both services now show rain after 5pm.

Carly Simon's song captures my current feelings.



For more Wednesday Vignettes, visit Anna at Flutter & Hum.


All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

28 comments:

  1. This is the kind of disappointment we experience here too Kris. Sometimes the Bureau has promised us 90% chance of rain, but the clouds have passed us over. Like you, I try not to look at the forecast too much. I guess being part of a large land mass has a lot to do with it. I do hope you receive the promised rain.

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    1. Well, 5pm came and went with no more than a few drops, certainly nothing measurable. It looks as though the rain has indeed passed us by. One of the 2 weather services shows a chance of more rain closer to midnight but the other shows nothing.

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  2. Kris, I hope the rain arrives to your garden soon! Here I had a ver rainy week and now some roses are showing signs of mildew and blackspot. The spraying season began.. sigh! Have a nice , rainy week!

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    1. It's currently looking like we're going to have to wait until the latter part of November to see any rain, MDN.

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  3. We got some yesterday, not a soaker but it got the dust off and I won't have to water for a few days. Fingers crossed for you !

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    1. Thanks, Kathy, but it's looking very unlikely we'll get anything at this point.

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  4. We know that feeling all too well and how disappointing it is to see rain chances literally evaporate as the day arrives. I do hope you got some rain today.

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    1. I actually caught a photo of a partial rainbow over the harbor at 6pm PDT, Shirley; however, all we've had so far is some spit from Mother Nature and any hope of more is dwindling fast.

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  5. Damn! One of our forecasters mentioned rain we were originally supposed to get this week (it’s been dry thus far) had instead split out and gone south to California. I was thrilled for you! Sorry to learn that’s not the case.

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    1. Kathy reported some rain up her way so some of California benefited. The clouds are still moving through this morning but we're not expecting anything from them. At least the air is fresher.

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  6. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that you get some rain at least before December. Sorry last night's didn't pan out.

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    1. The perky weather forecaster mentioned another chance of rain this coming weekend but I'm not paying her any mind. I may go out and get my car washed.

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  7. I got suckered too! Damn forecasters getting us all excited...

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    1. They really did make it sound like close to a sure thing, didn't they?!

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    2. I was watching a countdown on Accuweather that got as close as 8 minutes to rain! Then it reset to 23 minutes to rainfall...then the countdown mysteriously disappeared completely. (And we all know she's singing about Cat Stevens, right?)

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    3. The workings of both AccuWeather and Weather Underground remain mysterious to me...And really, Cat Stevens?

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  8. Sure hope you get slme much needed rain soon!

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    1. Me too but I'm not going to hold my breath, Peter.

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  9. I hope you get some rain. I know what it is to long for it and how refreshing it is to our gardens and our souls when it finally comes.

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  10. Listening to forecasters can make you crazy. They hype things up to get you to tune in more often and it works! Esp. with big storms, we don't dare not listen, just in case. An-ti-cipA-A-tion, indeed!

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    1. Tantalizing fat gray clouds have hovered in the northeast all day but none have moved this way, drat it!

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  11. Did you ever get any? We got a little shower overnight is all. The forecasters really screwed this one up. Arizona got a soaking--lucky them.

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    1. We had a a smattering of fat raindrops for about 5 minutes late yesterday afternoon, then nothing. The marine layer delivered 0.03/inch during the last few days of September but yesterday's "storm" provided no measurable precipitation whatsoever.

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  12. I can only imagine how you must feel. We get drought periods but not nearly as long as yours. I do know that feeling of anticipation and then the disappointment of the system blowing over. I hope you get some rain soon. The only advise I can give you is to plan an outdoor party. Surly that will make it rain.

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    1. Ha! My husband said he could leave my car out - but Mother Nature probably knows I'd appreciate a free car wash.

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  13. I've been catching up on a month of your posts, and so sad to see no rain after all.

    Still being very careful in our water use, with fierce hot weather waiting to smack us this weekend.

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    1. The US government agency that monitors weather and similar issues (NOAA) has said there's a 70% chance of a weak El Nino event from January through March, which theoretically should mean more rain for Southern California than the pittance we got last year. I hope they've got it right. It'll break my heart if we have a second rain year like the last one. Our "rain year" is calculated from October 1st through September 30th of the following calendar year.

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