5:20 pm – I don’t care what NWS says, it is raining. My poncho is wet, my road is wet, and there are raindrops on my windows. It has been varying from a slight drizzle to a substantial, but not heavy rain. My concern, of course, is the road below. ANY rain is going to close Villa and Big Creek again tonight. Cal-Trans is re-enacting the Greek Myth of Sisyphus.
4:30 pm – Major Hail just hit. I’ve been watching the blackening clouds. It was interesting just before the hail hit. Rock Knocker was looking out the glass door to the north, and I was looking out the glass door to the south and east. He yelled, “Come look at this, it is raining north!” I said, come look at this, it is black to the south east.” We changed positions, and when he saw the blackness to the south east, he said, “Holy sh** it is heading right to us.” Sure enough, in less than 5 minutes, the hail hit. Lightning strikes reported in SLO, but the radar shows SoCal is really being hit with this one.
I am uploading photos to my computer of the slides, taken yesterday and today. Will post separately as soon as I have sorted through the 500 photos Rock Knocker just dumped on me. So I will have 2 simultaneous posts going on this evening – weather and slide reports. Oh, my!
I was on my way back from taking pics of the slide when the rain hit. Huge hard drops! Going through Paul’s slide was an experience as the hard rain made it very active. Almost got hit by a few rocks there but did the usual “punch it” through there and luckily I was missed. Was going to head to the north slide but decided not to because of the rain.
Raining here, too, in the valley. Started for me on my way back from town at Bixby around 3:00. Off and on, mostly on.
Another half inch in the gauge today. Enjoying sun now.