Sunday, August 20, 2023

Reports on Tropical Storm Hilary in San Diego, so far not really very exciting.

Daily Diary, Day 1085:

Yesterday putting up a two weather reports in Facebook on the approach of Hurricane, now Tropical Storm Hilary, so I thought I would plop them in here, and then give you an update.

Weather Report #1:

It's Saturday at a little after 6 in my first report on the effects of Hurricane Hiliary on little old us living near the coast in San Diego. Absolutely nothing's happening.

It's cloudy, but there isn't even enough wind to get our wind chimes going, which normally go all the time. The time the rain is going to hit gets moved further and further back, although it looks like we should have some rain by 1 am.

I took a walk before dinner to see what I could see, and I did actually find something...a man who was on his roof, evidently checking out his shingles. I wondered he planned on doing if he saw any were loose? But at least it was something unusual to photograph. But I will check in tomorrow morning to let you all know how the night went!

Weather Report #2: It is now twelve hours after the first post, and we had a very quiet night. We did have a truly beautiful sunset, and around 2 am when I went to the bathroom, I saw that the back deck was wet. However, we had left the back door and side widow open - with towels down, and the towels were completely dry, because there was no wind.

It is now early morning and there is a very gentle rain going, and just enough breeze (still no wind chimes) coming from the north side of the house that we had to close that window. The second photo is from that side of the house which is where the bird feeder is located.

Our local weather station ( 2 blocks away) says we have accumulated .22 inches since 2 am, and there have been gusts of 3.4 mph.

In short, all the wind and heavy rain that is being predicted is still ahead of us. So time to batten down the hatches and see if today is going to live up to all the hoopla. Also a great day for doing more work on plotting the new novel.

Weather Report #3:

Well, I am here to report that except for us having a nice gentle rain that has lasted pretty much since 2 am this morning, and now has accumulated .54 inches in our neighborhood, so far there hasn't been any drama to our particular part of San Diego.

There are a few photos online of intersections where there is flooding, and I expect that if I wanted to put on boots and go down to look into our canyon, I would see the stream has grown a good bit. But none of this is unusual for a city where any rain causes some flooding. And the fact that everything in the city has been closed, and it is a Sunday, means there aren't a lot of cars on the road, so that is good.

Mostly, I have been enjoying looking out the rain spattered windows and watching the California Towhees (which seem to be the only birds who are braving the rain to come to the feeder.)

In fact, if I didn't keep feeling like the other shoe is going to suddenly drop, I would say it has been a very lovely day. My husband did get in a decent walk with Leeza so she could do her morning business early this morning when there was a brief break. Currently she is on the couch looking longingly out at the weather.

The actual leading edge of Tropical Storm Hilary has just begun to hit the city, and actually, as I write this, the rain has started coming down much harder, but straight down, so no wind at all. And there we go...already has stopped raining hard!

I will certainly take pictures if we do get a proper deluge, but for now, I can report all is well, and I actually finished the main plotting for Act 1 of the novel this morning, which sets me up to actually outline the first chapters. Makes me wonder if I would write faster if we had more rainy days!