Year: 2010

Storm Watch, 2/20/10 & Chanterelle Cook-Off

Only .25 inches. Looks like a quiet day! Back later.

The upcoming forecast is confusing as heck. I don’t know what to make of it, so I’m going back to looking at the skies.

Here’s the best forecast from my friend Charles Bell’s (NOAA NWS Monterey) tweets: ‘Correction…best chance for rain Sunday, Tuesday Night/Wed, and Thu night/Fri. Hydro issues may start popping up by the end of next week.”

One possible storm is progged to hit next Friday through Saturday, well, now Charles has modified that to Thu. nite/Fri. Hopefully, that will not affect the Big Sur Annual Chanterelle Cook-off to be held Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning. Rain brings out the chanterelles, don’t you know! See here for details:

Storm Watch, 2/19/10

6:30 pm – at 4 pm, it started raining in Morro Bay. We raced the rain, and got ahead of it after Hearst Castle, but between MB and the castle there was quite a bit of rain. It was dry on the coast, but as soon as we got to my place, around 5:30 pm, the rain started.

And from the NOAA discussion:
CLOUDS AND RAIN WILL RETURN ACROSS THE ENTIRE CWA AND SPREAD FROM THE COAST EARLY SUNDAY MORNING TO THE REST OF THE CWA BY EARLY SUNDAY AFTERNOON. .1″-.3″ IS FORECAST FOR MOST METRO LOCATIONS WITH MOST THAN 1/2″ POSSIBLE FOR HIGHER ELEVATIONS SPOTS. RAIN WILL TAPER OFF SUNDAY NIGHT.

A WEAK RIDGE WILL THEN BUILD INTO OUR AREA MONDAY ALLOWING US A DAY AND A HALF OF DRY WEATHER BEFORE RAIN RETURNS AGAIN FOR LATE TUESDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY AS TROUGH MOVES INTO OUR AREA. MODEL GUIDANCE PRODUCES DECENT RAINFALL AMOUNTS WITH UP TO .5″ FOR URBAN SPOTS AND 1″ FOR HIGHER ELEVATIONS. THIS STORM WILL EXIT LATE WEDNESDAY AND WILL BE FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER BREAK BEFORE A THIRD…AND LIKELY THE STRONGEST…MOVES INTO OUR AREA ON FRIDAY. GFS/ECMWF ARE BOTH LOCKING ON TO THIS SOLUTION WHICH WOULD PRODUCE SUBSTANTIAL RAINFALL FOR OUR AREA. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT THE GEM DEVIATES FROM THIS AND KEEPS THE SYSTEM OFF THE COAST.

7:30 am – Up here, it is cold, grey, and drizzling. It is not really “rain” in the traditional sense — just cloud drip — a very technical weather term. (LOL) Because I sit at one of the highest points in the area, a cloud will envelop this mountain, and it can and does drizzle during these episodes.

The current satellite picture is not particularly helpful, either.

I have tried to make sense of the various forecasts, and cannot. All I can say with relative certainty is that rain will visit us, on and off for the next week. Which days and how much doesn’t seem to be coming together with any degree of certainty.

Storm Watch, 2/18/10

Rain is predicted to hit the coast sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening. Not expected to bring much rain, only .5-.6 of an inch to the Santa Lucia Mountains. A second storm is due Sunday, then another on Tuesday. The weather pattern is very unsettled, and forecasts are all over the place regarding next week.

As for me, I am preparing for a week of storms. It is still winter. It is February. It is an El Niño year.

February’s Wildflowers

On the way down the mountain a couple days ago, I spotted some new wildflowers in bloom. I’ll have to look up the botanical names, but I’ve included the common names, for now. I’ll add a couple more later today.


The shooting stars are beginning to come out.


This is the sweet hound’s tongue. It likes moisture and shade. This is the only spot on Plaskett where it grows, that I have ever seen, anyway.


These sweet little milk maids like the shade and moisture of the redwoods.


Mission or Chocolate Bells, Fritillaria Biflora, is just beginning to blossom, only one or two so far.

Monster Waves

On Sunday, Valentine’s Day, monster waves made the news all over the state. David Allen send me a few photographs taken by his wife Jana this past Sunday off of Carmel Point. Wow!

Thanks David and Jana! Some great shots, here!

Catching up is hard to do …

Thank you for your notes, calls, and concerns everyone! It is soooo great to know you all care, and read this silly little blog. It is also nice to have internet again. I have a photo I prepared this weekend for your enjoyment, which I will post below. I also have February’s Wildflowers that I took today, and Dave Allen tells me that somewhere buried in my 350 emails, is one from him with shots of our stupendous waves. And if I can’t find that, Rock Knocker has some shots for me. And finally, of course, we have the incoming storm to track. So, bigsurkate will be very busy and very active for the next few days.

On Saturday, a gorgeous day in the 70’s, I had company. Rare company. I had Sarah from Ohio, Peter from Washington, Avis from Lucia, and the Rock Knocker from the next mountain over. RK left first, and after Sarah, Peter, and Avis left, I was visited by this sight. What a gorgeous day on the mountain!

Deaf, mute, and blind

… that’s the way I feel. I have been without any internet since Thursday night. I am sitting at the River Inn, on their wireless, posting this. I should have a new cellular modem this afternoon, and will be back in action then, with some photos, some thoughts, and other ramblings from a wayward mind.

2:30 pm – YAY!! I am back!! Did you miss me? I know Debbie did, she called me last night to make sure I was okay.

Road Photos by Danny Millsap

Danny Millsap, Supervisor, Cal-Trans Willow Springs Maintenance Yard sent me the following three photos:


These are the waves at Shale Point which caused the erosion to the sea wall, undermining the road there. That has been fixed and both lanes are now open.


This was a slide near Limekiln on January 19, 2010. Our Cal-Trans crew is always busy during the winter, keeping the road open for us, and our traveling public.


This is the slip-out at Lucia, taken February 6, 2010.

Thanks for sending these, Danny! And tell your crew we appreciate all that they do for us and how hard they work! You are all so awesome!

Lucia Slip-out Photos

These were taken Monday, on a drive-through …

This is the approach from the south, in the north bound lane.

More to follow throughout the day.

Here one can see how narrow it is, with the work going on in the inside of the lane, and the k-rails protecting motorists from the slip-out.


John Duffy, waiving on the left, is the climbing boss for this area, as well as the Chief Geologist.


Coming back through, going southbound. My guess (I have no “inside information” I haven’t already shared, is that this area will remain like this throughout the winter, UNLESS there is more damage or slip-out.


Close-up of John Duffy. Rock Knocker used to climb with him in the old days. Rain Rocks was one of the most frequent places they climbed.


And this is Wade (sorry, Wade, I’ve forgotten your last name!)

I’ll be checking on the Lucia Slip-out next week, and let everyone know how it is doing. Also, I have more photos of the Rock Shed/Bridge construction project at Rain Rocks that I will be posting to that page tonight or tomorrow, for those interested in following this historical project.

Random Big Sur Photograph #10

Sometimes, I just get bored with posting storm reports, and want to post something different. If you are relatively new to my blog (since I haven’t done this in a while) every so often, on a totally random schedule as the mood strikes, I post a random photograph taken somewhere in Big Sur and ask my readers to identify it. Sometimes it is way too easy, and other times, it is harder. This is one of those nights. This one is a little harder than most. Do you know where this is?