So yesterday was a leeeetle breezy around Los Angeles way. Not only did I get to harrowingly experience what it’s like to have repeated head-on and t-bone collisions with some pretty powerful gusts while biking to/from work, but when I got home last night cursing the wind like an escaped mental patient my wife Susan told me to go check out the backyard where I found this gift bestowed by the younger and shorter of our two palm trees (click to enlargify; Ranger Dog added for scale):

This morning at the breakadawn in respect for local, state and federal fire codes regarding matters of ingress and egress and because I couldn’t leave the backyard in such a horrible state, I  relocated the tangled mass of fronds off the central walkway in a far more orderly mass against the fence, and in doing so counted each and every one of the fuckers.

So how many do you think there were?

UPDATE (5.1): And the total number of fallen palm fronds is…? 106! Which makes Babamoto the closest overall with a guess of 121.

Stuck in my 10th-floor Westchester office under flourescent tubes with a microwaved frozen entry for lunch I chanced an envious glance out my window at the be-yoo-tee-ful day and down on the knoll outside found this absolute spot-on example of What I’d Rather Be Doing Right Now:

Here’s hoping we can all grab a best friend and a figurative patch of grass this spring weekend and do nothing but enjoy it.

Was sitting in my OC office, on a conference call when people stopped discussions to comment on the 5.3 aftershock at 9:44am (was previously reported as a 5.5).

I guess it’s a good time to post another screenshot from the USGS, which depicts the 7.2 quake over the weekend + a bunch of aftershocks since then.

Did you feel it? Fill out the survey!

- Magnitude 5.1 – SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA – 2010 April 04 23:15:20 UTC (1 mile south/southwest of Imperial, Calif)

- Magnitude 4.5 – BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO – 2010 April 04 23:09:49 UTC (32 miles west/southwest of Mexicali)

UPDATE: Revisions below:

-Magnitude 4.8 – BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO – 2010 April 04 23:09:38 UTC

-Magnitude 5.2 – BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO – 2010 April 04 23:15:14 UTC

-Magnitude 5.4 – BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO – 2010 April 04 23:25:09 UTC

-Magnitude 4.7 – BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO – 2010 April 04 23:37:32 UTC

-Magnitude 5.1 – SONORA, MEXICO – 2010 April 05 00:07:11 UTC

L.A. folks, did you feel the 6.9 7.2 quake?

-According to @ABC7: Disneyland security reports that all rides are shut down and some people are trapped in elevators after the quake.. UPDATE: Disneyland rides still shut down but no one stuck in elevators as initially reported http://bit.ly/aa4Nci

-On-air and live streaming coverage on ABC7

Here’s an updated quake map/screenshot as of Sunday, April 4, 2010 at 06:34:26 PM (PDT) – Pacific

Felt it here in L.A. as a slow shaking. (I was busy playing Wii and didn’t realize there was a quake until Yoshi told me twice that the building was shaking. And it wasn’t until I stopped playing and stood up that I realized that we were STILL swaying.)

You?

Screenshot taken from USGS:

UPDATE: USGS Upgraded the quake from 6.9 to 7.2
Here is the preliminary quake info:
Magnitude 6.9 7.2 – BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO

Magnitude 6.9 7.2
Date-Time

* Sunday, April 04, 2010 at 22:40:39 UTC
* Sunday, April 04, 2010 at 03:40:39 PM at epicenter

Location 32.093°N, 115.249°W 32.128°N, 115.303°W
Depth 32.3 km (20.1 miles) 10 km (6.2 miles) (poorly constrained)
Region BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO

Distances
* 26 km (16 miles) SSW (211°) (225°) from Guadalupe Victoria, Baja California, Mexico
* 6160 km (38 miles) SW (227°) (165°) from San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, Mexico
* 6462 (40 38 miles) SW (225°) (233°) from San Luis, AZ
* 173 167 km (108 104 miles) ESE (106°) 105° from Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 5.8 km (3.6 miles); depth +/- 21.1 km (13.1 miles) horizontal +/- 2.4 km (1.5 miles); depth +/- 31.6 km (19.6 miles)

As always, here’s the shake map and intensity map for this event and don’t forget to fill out the survey if you felt it.

So, there was an earthquake this morning. It woke me up but didn’t get me out of bed. Apparently it woke a lot of other people up too; the tweetosphere was abuzz with hashmarks in front of the word “earthquake.” My favorite tweet? From @mattngyuyenn, simply: “Who farted?”

The deets: 4.4, hit at 4:04 AM (numerologists take note), epicenter was Pico Rivera-ish. Looking around the web, it seems like nobody was hurt. Here are the data from the United States Geological Survey.

The upshot: Not too severe, but half the city, having felt the earthquake, looked at their alarm clocks and said, “ah, the hell with it, I’ll just get up,” will get really, really tired at around 2:00 in the afternoon today. So be aware of this if you’re driving or near heavy equipment at that time.

It was a couple weeks ago when I announced March 6 as the date for the next in my irregular series of long-ass walks — this one about 15 miles from USC to the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook State Park and back via Jefferson and Adams. Today I’m reading reports calling for a 70% chance of rain this Saturday.

I don’t put a whole lot of stock in immediate STORMWATCHES much less those that any horizon-sniffing MegaDoppler Bosstastic 12000XJ might be insisting are a few days away, so I’m not quite ready to reschedule the trek just yet. But even though I’m personally not against walking in the wet stuff, I like the idea of doing this with other people, so as we draw closer to the coming weekend if it looks like the prognosticationalizers are correct in their meteorologicalizing, then I’m going to bump the boogie to the last Saturday of the month, March 27.

If you’re planning on joining me, stay tuned for a WALKWATCH status dispatch … probably Thursday. Or hit me up on Twitter @wildbell for the latest.

As the temperature soared near 80 degrees today, I took a stroll around my neighborhood and snapped some pictures (more after the jump) of this perfectly amazing February day. Man, I love LA.

Read the rest of this entry →

click to embiggen, image courtesy of Stephen Coleman.

Photographer Stephen Coleman got up into the neighborhoods below the Mullaly Flood Basin that over flowed in the early morning hours on Saturday.  His images of the devastation is pretty amazing.  I feel for those home owners and their recovery that lies ahead.  I hope that the storms set for this week aren’t as strong and don’t add to their misery.

Photographs can be seen in two sets Mudflow A and Mudflow B.

Photograph “Paradise Valley” used with permission of Stephen Coleman.

Hello from the beautiful West Valley, where we have everything we need to weather the storm.

Feel free to share links to your rainy-day photos in the comments, below.

click to embiggen

Overnight in my corner of LA  some 3 7/8″ of rain fell.  The National Weather Service via The Weather Channel calls for more storms through this evening.  Thunderstorms, water spouts (potentially), urban and burn zone flooding are all in store.  I plan on staying in with the Tivo and video games until I absolutely have to go out this afternoon.  Be safe.  Stay dry(ish).

Last weeks rain brought about an added bonus in my corner of LA.  The San Gabriel River is running, side streams too.  Even several ponds have collected.  They are full of egrets, ducks and the odd pelican.  The air was brisk but the walk was worth it.  I started my stroll along the river from Duarte’s Encanto Park (#12 on the map).  Actually the stroll was over and under the bridge which was once part of the old Red Car line that ran to Glendora.

All pics by me with the trusty cell phone (forgot to put freshly charged batteries in the “good” camera).  They do get bigger with a quick click.  One more pic after the jump.

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My corner of the SGV came in at 9.5 inches of rain in this weeks storms.  I measured.  In a bucket.  That means we got nearly a half of our annual rain in one week.  Not bad.  Won’t have to run sprinklers for at least a month.  Now if the Sierra snow pack is getting what we need maybe our water worries can be alleviated a bit this summer.

Now to go out and enjoy the fresh air and blue skies by walking the dog.

Pic by me with the trusty cellphone.  A quick click will make it bigger  if you really want to see the amateur rain gauge at its biggest.

The impact of the storms, the shoreline is about 15 feet closer in than it used to be. More pix after the jump Read the rest of this entry →

Hat tip to my friend Ann Erdman the Pasadena PIO for this alert.

“In case you or someone you know plans on flying today, Southwest Airlines is canceling 17 arrivals and 17 departures at Bob Hope Airport (Burbank) between 1 and 6 p.m. this afternoon due to widespread inclement weather. It is also shutting down its operations at John Wayne Airport, San Diego, Ontario, and Phoenix. LAX flights remain on advisory status. “

Its all weather related.  To check things out prior to departures at the other airports check with Southwest’s web.