Spring Equinox Weather Photos from around Big Sur

Debbie Reed sent me one of the Big Sur River she took today.

Big Sur River, 3/20/11 by Debbie Reed

(couple more for you as soon as the internet goddess allows)
Okay, I give up. I had a couple more, but I have been trying to upload the one I took of Cone Peak covered in snow this afternoon, and the upload is beyond slow. Sometimes, it has gotten all the way to 77% uploaded and then stalled for 10-15 mins. I give up for now.

Cone Peak on the Spring Equinox

This is yesterday’s view, and as soon as the cloud goes away from the top of Cone Peak today, I’ll take another.

That is Prewitt Ridge in the foreground, and today, it is covered in snow!

Spring Equinox clouds by bigsurkate

Spring Equinox Sunset by Jeff Parrish

Spring Equinox Storm

And from our BS Health Center:
Posted by Sharen Carey, PA-C

The Big Sur Health Center will remain open for appointments during its usual hours of 10:00 – 1:00 and 2:00 – 5:00.pm, Monday through Friday.

If you have an urgent medical need after hours, please call our number, 667-2580 and listen to the entire message. As always, we will continue to have an MD on call to offer advise. If it is determined that your need cannot wait until the next regularly-scheduled business day, local medical personnel will be contacted to assist you.

In the event of a true emergency, please call 911 for the ambulance to assist you.

In the meantime, remember to plan ahead for medication refills so that your requests can be handled during regular working hours.

I travelled Nacimiento-Ferguson Road on Saturday and the road was challenging dodging rocks, trees across the road and oncoming traffic in my lane. The road closed for a short time on Sunday due to a large downed tree. During these rains, we suggest you plan to go south through Cambria. If you don’t need to travel to the Monterey Peninsula for other reasons, health center staff can call your prescriptions to either Cambria Drug and Gift or to Cambria Pharmacy.
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From our BSVFD Chief:
Already I am hearing stories of speeding cars and near misses on Nacimiento Fergusen Rd. Please, please drive slowly and carefully!! This is a very narrow, winding road, with extremely steep cliffs and in many places only one car width wide. You could at any time encounter rocks, trees, animals or another vehicle right around the corner. Public works personnel could also be out doing road work.

It has now become our major thoroughfare in and out of Big Sur for a lot of us. Highway 46 from Cambria takes approximately 50 minutes longer to get here and is much more safe.

When going through Hunter Liggett if you do not obey the speed limit you will be ticketed, this is a federal ticket! They have told us in no uncertain terms when we are over there for wildland school they will ticket us even if we are in our fire engine, they mean business!!

And lastly, neither I nor my Brigade members need to spend anymore time than we already do standing along the road waiting for the ambulance to pick you up, (best case scenario) or coroner, (worst case) because you were in a hurry. We have other things to do with our lives. So Please Slow Down!!!!!!!
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**PACIFIC VALLEY SCHOOL CANCELS SCHOOL FOR TOMORROW, MONDAY, 3/21 DUE TO DANGEROUS CONDITIONS, BASICALLY. (1. Rocky Creek Slide; 2. Closure on N-F Rd. today; 3 Threatening road closures to the south; 4 Continuing storms with more heavy rain and high winds; 5. Difficulty for Dave Allan to make it to school from Carmel; 6. Difficulty for Joyce Duffy to make it to school from Stone Ridge due to rock slides; 7 The continuing illness of the principal/superintendent; and lastly, 8. the potentially dangerous road conditions for the bus and parents trying to get children to school.
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*IMPORTANT* CHP REPORTS NACIMIENTO OPEN AT 12:13 PM. PLEASE POST IN COMMENTS ANY INFORMATION YOU WISH TO SHARE, RATHER THAN SENDING IT TO ME, AS MY SYSTEMS ARE ONLY WORKING INTERMITTENTLY TODAY. (SEE BELOW) (I did just get my back-up gennie working, but that is a bit iffy with electronics.)

Apparently, neither County Roads nor the special page set up by Monterey Communications has been updated since Friday afternoon, so don’t rely on them. I suggest you monitor the CHP site for road conditions, NOAA for weather conditions, and the comments here for an idea about what is going on around our community. My systems are unreliable at the moment.

Another 2-3 inches of rain expected in the next 24 hours in these mountains, and another high wind advisory for this afternoon. You know what? I think I’ve had enough for today.

11:00 am -As happens, when all hell breaks loose, all hell breaks loose. I have not been able to get the generator going, and my phone/internet/computer batteries are drained, so I am currently sitting in my car, with the inverter plugged in, charging all my systems. Not sure how much rain I got last night as the rain gauge blew apart and away. Checking other containers, it looks to be about 3 inches, but can’t tell for sure. I did get the gauge back together and up, and noted that between 8 am and 10 am, I received 1/2 inch. I will be checking what I can while I sit here getting warm and recharged, and hope you are all fairing as well as can be expected. Please feel free to leave a comment or two about conditions where you are, as I will only be able to be online today on and off, not as I usually am.