The recovery from these storms has been pretty good compared to year's past. At least from what I have observed. We had a lot of storm damage at the stable where I ride and it is amazing how things have been cleaned up so quickly. On New Years day it looked awful. You couldn't even see the pavement under all the mud which was almost a foot deep in some places. Lots of trees down everywhere not only in the parks and hills but in places like San Francisco. Washouts, flooded areas, road closures, gullies and a lot of erosion. But today we were all remarking on how crews have been so good at prioritizing and getting thing cleaned up on roads and nearby towns affected. I go to the stables rain or shine so I drive up and down the peninsula. I also cross the bay at least once a week. The East Bay actually got hit worse than the peninsula and south bay. Southern Santa Cruz mountains seemed to fare a bit better than the northern part of the chain from what friends and family have shared. It's a very strange weather system. Almost tornado like in how it touches some areas and misses others depending on how fast it moves along.

I was gobsmacked when I saw the pictures.

Now, I'll be thinking of you wildchild.

I'm so sorry to hear this. I'm glad it's getting better, no matter how strange it all is. And it is strange.

California is such a gorgeous state, especially (to me) the coastal areas. I really hate seeing the destruction caused by weather: rain, slides, etc. Things exacerbated by the drought, fires, then the downpours. I feel so bad for landowners and natural areas that are being destroyed by extreme weather and climate change. I'm sorry for all affected. Our area of the west seems to be being spared this cycle. For a while, at least. PNW

rob, I thought you were a military brat and moved around as is typical for such families. How long did you live in the Monterey area?

This storm phenomenon isn't strange, they're a normal and regularly occurring wintertime event usually at least once each rainy season. But not always. Years ago, these storms were called the Pineapple Express. A more common term these days is an Atmospheric River. Warm, moist air is funneled in a north-easterly direction by a jet stream from the general area of Hawaii toward the West Coast. It can hit from Alaska to California but I think most frequently the target hit is California. It produces very heavy rainfall, especially at the coasts and the near-coastal hills, for usually not more than 24 hours. What's unusual is that there have been a steady succession of these storms separated by just a few days, all hitting the coast around the same general area, from just north of San Francisco to south of Monterey. The pattern is continuing in the next few days. The damage and widespread inundation can be quite shocking.

I've been hanging out in coastal Southern California for the last month. The weather is better (warmer and drier) and these storms have been mostly petering out before getting to where I am. I get reports from friends and neighbors. I'm going to try to wait until the pattern changes before going back.

I totally agree Oly. It's hard to watch, especially now that I'm hearing people have died.

elmer, I've lived in many areas of the US, but I found Monterey to be very influential to me after many years of living there (ETA: to the point of I've asked my child to make sure it's my final resting place). I'd really appreciate not being called a military brat; I don't find it endearing. It's an incredibly hard life, especially for young children. It's high stress to be without that parent, who is greatly in harm's way. And always being the outsider.

I wasn't aware that there were any negative or critical message connotations in using the military brat phrase. It's the only one I've heard used as shorthand for those with a parent in the military.

You can count on me to try to find useful information to better understand new stuff I come across. Here's what I found in the Wikipedia piece on the subject. You seem to feel differently, and I get it, your feelings are what they are. For some I imagine there may be regrets and disappointment about having to move so often. .

" Military brat is known in U.S. military culture as a term of endearment and respect.. The term may also connote a military brat's experience of mobile upbringing, and may refer to a sense of worldliness. Research has shown that many current and former military brats like the term; "

snidely (a moniker you gave yourself and got in a snit over more than once when it was used), surely you know what most people think of brats?

Same link. Love how you cherry picked it:

"Research has shown that many current and former military brats like the term; however, outside of the military world, the term military brat can sometimes be misunderstood by the non-military population, where the word brat is often a pejorative term"

Since I am the person living that life, and you want to try to find useful information, take my word for it. Please don't use that term for me.

P.S. I also don't like it as it's an adopted acronym from the British. No thanks.

Hahaha. Not for the first time, I'll offer an explanation (that you've likely read many times before but perhaps decided to overlook for your comment).

Many years ago, in choosing a username for this and many other sites, I wanted to use the name of a cartoon character. My favorite cartoon "series" as a kid, if you could call it that, was Dudley Do-right of the Canadian MP, shown on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. Anticipating that other users often resort to name calling and other childish behavior, I figured that both Dud-ley and Do-right could provide too much fodder for those in the peanut gallery, so I instead chose Do-right's villainous enemy, Snidely Whiplash. Without giving thought that those inclined to childish behavior would snatch the name Snidely and assume there was an unintended message from me. Which was not the case.

After getting tired of childish comments on this site, as you've demonstrated above, I changed my name to Elmer J Fudd. Someone mentioned to me not long ago that snidelywhiplash shows sometimes to other users so I'll try to change that again. It remains and will remain unchanged as an email address I use for sites like this.

There was no slight intended in my use of the term "military brat" nor any awareness that it was anything other than a frequently used colloquial term that described the consequences to family circumstances of a parent's military occupation. The phrase has been used many times in this forum by participants describing their own family situations. Refer to some of the "tell us about yourself" threads.

There was also no slight intended calling you snidely before, for my part. You still didn't like it. And I quit, follow suit please

Rocky & Bullwinkle was also my fav cartoon series way back when. My friends gave me the nickname Bullwinkle for a while before I realized what they meant by it. They saw me as being a "Mr Know it all", nyuk.

rob, what I found slightly annoying, not more, was when people tried to turn a cartoon character name into a vacuous taunt. Had I chosen Wile E Coyote, or Pepe Le Pew, or Daffy Duck, might it have been the same fodder for childish people?

vg, such a great show. I had a school friend whose father worked at Jay Ward Productions. By his description, it was a creative paradise for brilliant artists who were expected to have a few screws loose. They did innovative and brilliant work.

I loved it too (including Dudley Dooright and Nell, Boris and Natasha...)! And the Peabody and Sherman show. Loved them both to the bone!

Rocky & Bullwinkle's subtle adult jokes that were squeezed in-between the kids' jokes was what made their show the best, too funny. It reminded me of the older Poppy cartoons where on occasion he would mumble an insulting comment under his breath while talking to his fellow characters.

What a great cartoon -- yes even as an adult I can watch it and laugh, even more than when I was a kid. I haven't seen it in years ... you tube maybe?

I am also a partisan of the show I used to own the entire show on VCR tapes. I am a fractured fairy tale fan. The hidden jokes and innuendos are the best.

Not the best is military brat. I have attended schools where they complained of having "too many". If people want to embrace this perjorative term let them but dont use it around me. I think we ought to get Veterans benefits after being dragged from pillar to post and having to live for the military as in you have to meet certain behavior standards lest you damage your parent's career type of thing.

I feel for the people down in California. I did live for a short time in the bay area. Nobody needs such awful weather.

I despise these stupid to me labels they love to put on weather systems. They are done to jin up anxiety instead of informing people. We get told we are going to be having storms by which they mean rain. Rain in the PNW so help me god and Atmospheric rivers is used for rain now.

" I think we ought to get Veterans benefits after being dragged from pillar to post and having to live for the military "

There's a long list of decisions and choices parents may make that affect the lives of their spouses and children. This happens to be one, there are hundreds of others.. As for Veterans benefits, other than those for people who serve long enough to reach a retirement qualification with pension and a few other perks, they are pretty limited and most with prior military service don't get anything worth writing home about. Except for those who find themselves homeless or otherwise indigent, when anything is better than nothing.

" Atmospheric rivers is used for rain now. "

That's not the case here in California. The major events may be more frequent than in past years but I haven't noticed the term being misused. Our more common winter rain events, of which we had several before New Years, come from storms that travel toward us in a south-easterly direction from the North Pacific. Cooler temps and rain amounts of maybe a half to a full inch at a time, spread over a few days. The full barreled Pineapple Express/Atmospheric River approach from the south, travelling North-easterly and reach that rate on an hourly basis and it can continue for hours. It's not unusual for temps to remain in the mid-50s into the 60s during such storms.

Patricia, we know paid a greater price than many children, and had no choice in it. We can appreciate each other. 😉

nickel, this one's for you: yes, YouTube has recordings

fractured fairy tale-Rapunzel

Thank you Elmer for explaining Veteran benefits to a child and grandchild of a Veteran. Ahem....I was making a joke. It is one I have made with friends for years. I actually value the experiences I was lucky enough to accrue way outside of the experience of kids raised in what many military kids call "home". I absolutely adored living abroad but most of the kids did not. They pined for "American Graffiti". Gack.

A Pineapple Express here in the west coastal areas is a south or southwest wind, also warm and where we get our worst tear your hair off winds in typically October or there abouts. We do not normally get horrific winds with rain. Rain generally means the end of blow the roof off the house winds.Not always and for us a violent wind storm is often not predicted. Weather is local. Names are frequently stupid. I want a calm, rational explication of what may happen. Not some wild crazy fancy named possibility of hype. I once lived in Illinois for a short time and they had the very best weather reports. Totally boring detailed estimation for farmers.

I didn't mention - the Captain Underpants cartoons have amusing content aimed at adult viewers watching with younger ones.

In much of California, Patricia, winds blow out of the south during most rain events, Pineapple Expresses included. Parts of the state's coast are South facing, others West facing or angled. South facing beaches usually experience the greatest storm damage here from windblown waves and swells, as has been seen this past week in South facing Santa Cruz but not in North facing Monterey just across the bay.

The wind and rain woke me at 2:00, hopefully its blowing itself out now. I’m always worried about our very large street trees and am amzed my husband has slept through the noise. I listened to the radio and heard Hwy 17, over the ’hill’ to Santa Cruz, was closed due to wires down. Feast or famine!

Keep us updated sjerin. If you can check in wildchild, I'm interested to know how you're faring

I understand the exasperation with media's apparently irresistible need to create a bigger, worser name for any storm that comes along. I don't follow California weather but did hear that 14 people have died so far from this latest spell, so whatever is going on, sounds pretty rough. Stay safe, ya'll.

rob333, thanks for the Fractured Fairy Tale link! I love it!!!

eta: Elmer, I read a few Captain Underpants books when my kid was in elementary school. I don't remember the stories but I do remember laughing along with her.

elmer, have you tried to head back yet? How is your home area doing?

No, thanks for asking. I think we'll be hanging out here for another 7-10 days, then go home.

I've asked my gardner to go by 3 times now to check around the outside. There's an in-ground drain with a grate that has the annoying habit of getting clogged with leaves so he's cleared that and a few others each time. He also found a wooden fence section down and fixed that.

My garage can collect water along one wall but I haven't asked a friend with a key to stop by. Could have leaks too with the amount of rain and wind. Whatever is, is, we'll address it when we get there.

I hope you have very little to take care of upon your return. Best!

Thanks, appreciate the kind thoughts. Same wishes for others here that live on the area.

Things are calm now, just a few showers now and then. Rob, I don't know Wild nor where in the Bay Area she lives. I wouldn't think it's the same area where she rides.

We feel lucky not to have lost power yet....

I'm glad it's calm and you still have power! Little bit of relief. Hope all is well very soon

Several more high intensity storms are in the forecast, unfortunately

Yeah, I saw that.

😢

Hope everyone stays safe! So much destruction going on there.

Rain and high winds during last night. Showers on and off all day. When I took the dog to the vet today the rain was steady but without wind. I left late afternoon to go shop around 12/13 miles away. Sun was out. The rain began again as I neared my destination. An hour later it became fierce and the wind was building up again. There were road closures nearby. I was glad I had my raincoat. On the way home I called DH and he said we hadn't had any more rain at all since early afternoon. By the time I was around 3 miles out of the deluge the rain became a mild drizzle, and by the time I was home the roads were relatively dry. We haven't lost power but other neighborhoods have. Saw a few a lot of slip and slide single car accidents. This is a series of traveling cloudbursts. Some last for hours, others touch and go.

That is so insane. I'm glad you're ok.

A break in the rain where I am, but not enough to let things dry out much. A bit of sun yesterday. More rain coming Saturday. It's disastrous for many, but we are ok so far.

The Monterey Peninsula is in danger of becoming an island. Back in March 1995, all three roads into the Monterey area were shut down. And it is in danger of happening again. Back then, the Carmel River Bridge at Highway One was destroyed, and flooding closed the east and north routes into the Peninsula. We lived in Carmel Valley at the time, over a small bridge over the Carmel River. That bridge was taken out as well. We had a small one-lane access within a few days, but the whole bridge was rebuilt. The Highway one bridge took quite a while longer to rebuild.

Now the bridge over the Salinas River on Highway 68 is in danger, not just flooding. And the bridge at Highway One in the north county area is being watched closely. So it could all happen again, Deja vu.

I spoke to a friend who winters in Mammoth Lakes CA. They had 7.5 FEET of snow in one day. So much the ski area had to close. That was in addition to all the snow that has been falling from these storms. One positive coming from all this misery is the snow pack will benefit water supplies later in the year. Though they have a long way to go to get to normal, it is providing some relief to reservoirs so decimated by drought.

The Mammoth area is one of the snowiest in the Sierra. Averaging (per a search) about 300 inches a year. It may have received nearly that amount already. Its eastern runoff feeds, I believe in whole or in part, water mostly used within the city limits of LA.

Also of concern is water for the important agriculture sector, most of which is in the Central Valley and relies on west-flowing snow melt runoff along the length of the Sierra.

Looks like it's finally abating? Is that right?

Rob, it’s cool with a mix of sun and clouds here today. Finally starting to dry out. Looks like our high will be around 59. Chilly for us here in SoCal!

Sunny and cool today. A cold storm front, the normal kind, expected to pass through tomorrow night with typical < 1 inch of rain. Then clear for awhile but as is typical behind a cold front, cold temps for a few days.