Strange Weather

For those who are used to thundershowers or rain at this time of year this probably looks like a pretty ordinary picture of a cloudy sky. For us it is decidedly strange in a year which has been punctuated by strange weather...excessive rain in the winter, excessive heat in June and a cold spring . We rarely, I won't say never anymore, get rain between July and October or November and a sky like this in the middle of August is really unusual.

I talked to my brother in San Diego this morning and he says they have closed all the windows of their 7th floor condo and have to plans to go anywhere as tropical storm Hillary travels up the coast of Baja California toward San Diego. If it behaves according to predictions, it will be the first tropical storm warning in California history. Rick says they have gone from thinking a lot of the hype is exaggerated, to taking it seriously. Heavy rains are predicted, and the navy, which has a very large presence in San Diego has moved a lot of their large vessels out to sea to give them more flexibility in securely mooring the essential ones.

In the meantime, back in Santa Rosa, I can't see any possible connection with our strange weather and the online weather maps of the approaching storm, but coupled with the ongoing stories about the huge fire in Lahaina, and it's uncanny similarity in all respects to the Tubbs/Nun's fire here, people are a bit on edge. The coverage is triggering PTSD in a lot of people.

As I have said in several comments regarding the insurance situation, I can't really blame the insurance companies for the failure of the government to actively fight climate change rather than making ineffectual hindsight driven stopgap decisions. Climate change is real, and anybody who refuses to believe it is living under a rock with their heads in the sand. I'm angry at the government for failing to show not just leadership but active support for getting away from using fossil fuel as quickly as possible. It is already too late for many fire victims in California and elsewhere, but soon I predict it won't be just us. Everybody is experiencing extreme weather in one form or another. It's not our fault that we chose to live where we do, but I don't think we can expect the insurance companies to continue to underwrite catastrophic disasters either. We will have to get some sort of state sponsored high risk insurance and it will cost a lot. How is that different from allowing the insurance companies to charge more rather than forcing them to cancel policies?