Complaining about the weather (and related), 2025

[robkelk]

I hope that folks in LA aren't being affected by the fire being driven by Santa Ana winds...

[Labster]

We are somewhat affected. It's not really a typical Santa Ana event, there's enough forcing to push winds over the San Gabriels, rather than through the canyons and passes. The winds are also more unpredictable and change direction. Which means that a lot of unusual places are burning, and the fires aren't moving in straight lines. The far end of Sunset Boulevard burned, leaving burned houses and only the Shell of a gas station.

I'm not in the same county as any of these fires, which means something in the west, unlike your puny East Coast counties. But we did lose out electricity for 16.5 hours here, which was really annoying -- especially when you can see that the people across the street have power the entire time. But they didn't fix it, the grocery store next door eventually fired up a generator. The stoplight flashed red most of the day, but by the time sunset fell the reserve power went out, and it just became a high-traffic, unmarked four-way stop in the complete darkness, where people would have to know there was a signal there to see it in time.

And then, a few minutes after the NWS wind advisory ended (but hours after the wind itself calmed down), someone pressed a button and our lights turned back on. I'm reasonably furious about the thing. Had to take a generator over to my recently widowed neighbor so her food wouldn't spoil.