The West coast has a very different climate from the East coast. On the West coast we have hot dry summers and wet, but relatively mild, winters. The vast majority of the rain during the year falls in winter. This does have an effect on what type of plant species do well. Another effect, if you look anywhere on the globe, the West coast for a continent always has an North-South divide, with the South being very dry and the North being very wet, but for the East coast it is kind of the reverse, with the South being very wet and humid and the North being a bit dryer. This has to do with the Coriolis effect and ocean currents, since the earth is spinning from West to East, currents have a natural way of seeming to drift West, that is in a counterclockwise direction. So Guangzhou, China has a seasonal climate very similar to Miami, Florida, while Los Angeles, California, has a very similar climate to Lisbon, Portugal.

Kim, Why is the neighbor burning oil or tires? Is that not illegal in Texas? If someone does it here, we can call and report them to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. Hooray for the rain for those of you who got it. We have invisible sprinkles this morning. You know, the kind that fall about 8' apart from one another, so you feel a sprinkle, you stand still and look around you. You don't see anything and you wonder if you dreamed it up, but then you feel another one a few minutes later. Of course, these tiny sprinkles add up to nothing in the rain gauge, but perhaps they are a sign we might get rain later. Amy, I swear, I could hear your son's eyes rolling too. (grin) I only ran out of gas once in my life, and I sure did learn my lesson and never did it again. Perhaps your day for heavy rain is today....or tonight or tomorrow. Jay has had good rain. Michelle has had good rain. Jennifer finally got rain there at her place. We've had rain down here. Rebecca and Nancy always get rain (grin). It seems like it surely must be Amy's turn now. Y'all watch for severe stuff today. I started its own thread for that topic so anyone who comes to the page is more likely to see it. Dr. Forbes is supposed to be live on TWC from 6-8 pm Eastern time, and since he's gone to part-time, he's generally only live on the air when somebody is expected to get severe weather. While we are a part of that somebody today, there's other places at risk too. Dawn

One half inch in San Antonio, but also appreciated. A friend near Boerne said a tornado was spotted. An alert was issued and everyone was advised to take cover, but thankfully it didn't touch down. Interestingly her cat dashed under the bed just before the alert and came out just as the alert ended. On another but related subject; with all the showers we've had off and on we have surprisingly few mosquitoes. How about y'all?

Melissa - so happy to hear that you have been having good precipitation! Here in Northern CA it has been sunny, and in the high 60s or even low 70s degrees F every day for weeks. They now start counting our rainfall on Oct 1, and since then we have gotten 1/3rd of an inch of rain. (So, I turned our irrigation system off, but have had to turn it on again). No this is NOT "normal". I think our normal to date for this date is well over 5 inches. Sigh. They are now predicting some rain for this coming Sat and Sun, but I will believe it when I see it. So, enjoy your rain and snow! Jackie