Will this Atmospheric River Parch the Drought?
mmmmm ... don't get yer hopes up
howdy
When I first moved to Southern California from New England, one of the many (many) things I had to get adjusted to was its weather patterns and seasonal shifts. I had to learn that summer could actually be one of the coolest times in the mornings thanks to June Gloom. I had to learn that winter was more like spring. I had to learn the hot weather went well into what most people consider fall. And while I laughed at December joggers in knit caps and scarves when I first arrived, it wasn’t long before I was bundling up when the thermometer dipped below 66, too.
It also sort of felt like weather was more … extreme. And not in the way we use the phrase “extreme weather” today, it just felt like when it rained, it downpoured. When it was windy, trees came down and power went out. When it was hot … well, OK maybe that was related to the extreme weather thing.
With rain, that is how it’s been in California for as long as people have been keeping records. We don’t get many days of rain, but on those days it rains a whole lot, all at once. That’s why we get mudslides and floods and it partially explains the bad drivers (months’ worth of motor oil residue comes to the surface at once. It’s a generous cop-out but OK).
And so we come to our most recent West Coast weather phenomenon – the atmospheric river. These are not new, but they do seem to be getting a little more extreme too, don’t they? Up in the Pacific Northwest, my Christmas skiing plans were thwarted by a funnel of warm, wet air that was somehow both warm enough to fall as rain (bad for snow) and cold enough to freeze over (bad for everything else) with hurricane-like winds to boot. That river turned south to California, where it snarled holiday travel plans and put a lot of the Bay Area underwater. Two more heavy storms hit this week, too (one may be hitting as you read this depending on where you are). At least two lives have been lost in the Bay Area, roads have been flooded and power lost San Jose to Santa Barbara … and another storm is due for the weekend, too.
You’d think these stratospheric firehoses would be good for our never-ending droughts but the effects can be frustratingly fleeting. California snowpack – which acts as a natural water reservoir and is a metric that informs water policy across the state – is 174% above average right now but the snow-to-date for this rainy season is still only 64% of the April average. California’s reservoirs are still low, and it would take years of this type of weather to restore aquifers throughout the West. Plus, we can get good snowpack and have it all melt away with a spring heat wave, which happened last year after a dry spell.
So stay safe. Enjoy the rain. Enjoy the snow. But don’t cut back on that water conservation just yet, OK?
The Big Story
Something to talk about
The Mayor Near Mont Blanc
You would think Jean-Marc Peillex, the mayor of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains would be excited about the tourism from being the ‘gateway community’ of Mont Blanc in France. That’s the story we most often hear about these kinds of places. And sure, there is a lot of truth to that. But there’s also a flipside – when the destination gets so popular that the influx of people totally overruns the communities nearby.
Peillex has had a history of trying to restrict the nearly 20,000 people who climb the peak each year, but on Wednesday he filed a police complaint against two climbers who posted a video of themselves setting up camp above the altitude of 4807 meters. The limit was enacted to protect both the fragile area above and hikers, who are at increased risk of slides and avalanches due to warming permafrost. “True mountaineering,” he said in a statement, “requires humility and discretion.” In recent years, a British tourist abandoned a rowing machine on the mountain and Swiss climbers landed a plane near the summit and hiked to the top.
Local mountaineering groups and UNESCO France have criticized the mayor’s actions.
Via AFP.
Modern Hiking
Good stuff from the Modern Hiker site
A Taste of Van Life
#VanLife. It’s a hot topic. Over the past few years, the idea of living in a van to explore the outdoors has left the realm of the DIY dirtbag and moved into a hobby for folks with disposable income and a place that’s sort of glamping-adjacent. Over Thanksgiving week, the folks at the German van rental company Roadsurfer let my husband and I take one of their vans out into the California deserts. I wrote about the experience on the site – and even though I wouldn’t want to camp like this all the time, it was a really fun departure from my normal roadtrips.
Talk About the Weather
If you’ve been on one of the site’s 700+ in-depth trail guides lately, you may have noticed a small but helpful change – weather forecasts! Now each trail guide includes a 3-day forecast built right into the trail beta, so you can plan the right amount of layers for the weekend. It’s something I’ve wanted to add to this part of the site for a long time, so I hope you find it helpful!
Tech Talk
Gadgets, Technology, and Hype
Fresh Kicks, Always
Does the phrase “shoe subscription” sound intriguing to you? They say you’re supposed to swap out your running shoes every 400-500 miles (give or take), but a new program from Swiss shoemaker On wants to change the way you think about buying and throwing out footwear. Their subscription program Cyclon works like this – you pay $30 a month and get brand new pair of undyed shoes. Every six months, you can ship the shoes back – where they will be 100% recycled into raw materials for a new shoe. Oh, and the knit material is made out of castor beans. The first shoe just launched, and Outside did a review. I know I don’t spend $360 a year on running shoes, but maybe you do? And either way, this sustainable model is really interesting.
Hey, are you looking for books? You can get signed copies of my best-selling Day Hiking Los Angeles and Discovering Griffith Park directly from me!
You can also snag all three of my books from Amazon or your local bookseller.
Wildlife Crossing
Wildlife and the Outdoors
A Celebration of P-22
Like most of you, I was surprisingly emotional when I learned that L.A.s mountain lion P-22 was euthanized following a car collision. I wrote my own tribute for the King of Griffith Park in the Los Angeles Times’s WILD newsletter, but many other remembrances have continued to pour in over the weeks since. The Times has compiled this stirring audio and visual tribute, which is one of the best.
Also, save the date – a Celebration of P-22’s Life is scheduled for Saturday, February 4th at the Greek Theatre from Noon to 2PM. Stay tuned to SaveLA Cougars for ticket info.
Dry January Update
Hi my name is Casey and it’s been 5 Days since I went on a Social Media Dry January
I have deleted social media apps but I am legitimately surprised by how often my eye is drawn to the place where my Instagram and Facebook apps used to be when I pick up my phone. It’s honestly a little disconcerting to feel like these apps have been training me in that way. Still, my screen time is down over 30% from the previous week.
Because of the software I use to schedule posts, I can’t completely block social media sites or disable personal accounts, but so far I’ve been able to resist instinctively hitting “command T, f a” to open up a new tab and wallow in Facebook in downtime.
What have I done instead? I finished reading a book and have been reading more poems from a few anthologies. I’ve been prepping some new posts for the site and working with new writers (yay!). I’ve been writing this newsletter. And I started work on a new TV project that’s going to keep me pretty busy for the next few weeks.
What do I miss? Well, this week, as a recovering political junkie I was severely missing the Twitter hot takes on the multiple (and maybe still continuing?) votes to name the new Speaker of the House, but instead of mindlessly scrolling I reached out to a few friends via text to vent instead (and OK have them send me some choice Tweets). That whetted my appetite, gave me an excuse to chat with friends, and saved me a lot of time, too.
I’m in the Producers Guild of America, and another thing I love doing on social media this time of year is sharing and comparing reviews of the award-contender movies. That is something I do genuinely miss and haven’t found a replacement for just yet, especially since the film friends who really love getting into this stuff are all over the country. I haven’t seen everything yet, but so far my favorites are Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Banshees of Inisherin, and Glass Onion. Up next, I’m most excited to see Moonage Daydream, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Women Talking, and White Noise. What are your favorites so far?
One More Thing
Oh yeah, before I go …
Happy National Bird Day
Did you know National Bird Day was a thing? Well, today’s as good a day as any to celebrate our avian friends. I know a few favorites from the California Sage Scrub and Pacific Northwest, but I am a long way from calling myself a birder. At the Modern Hiker Portland HQ, my native garden has been attracting some local feathered neighbors, and I found a terrific book written specifically about the species of the Pacific Northwest. The author goes by “Seymore Gulls,” which honestly I think is wonderful. I also met him once at a neighborhood fair and he’s lovely. The classic Birds of California Field Guide is a very affordable entry point, too, and last week I talked about the new book Slow Birding, which focuses on the most common birds throughout the United States. If you’re in L.A., I recommend heading to the Audubon Center at Debs Park – they do classes and even have bird-watching kits you can take out for free.
And of course, if you want to learn a little bit about birds but you really just want a book that will make you laugh, might I suggest the truly charming Field Guide to Dumb Birds of the Whole Stupid World?
You mentioned movies you plan to watch....my two cents, White Noise a ridiculous time waster. No point, no plot, no anything. I'm hardcore and rarely bail on a movie that I am not enjoying, but I should have listened to my better instincts 30 minutes into this one.
I’m with Sheri on this one. A major disappointment.