10:00 pm – a total of exactly one inch since midnight, bringing the yearly total to 10.25″. Not nearly enough. It is amazingly quiet and peaceful for the first time in days. Bsk signing off.
From NWS, Monterey:
Sycamore Canyon Rd, by Herald Photographer David Royal
.DISCUSSION…AS OF 08:54 AM PST SATURDAY…THE VIGOROUS LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM PARKED OFF THE MONTEREY COAST WILL CONTINUE TO DOMINATE THE REGION THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON. KMUX RADAR IMAGERY CONTINUES TO SHOW BANDS OF PRECIP SPINNING AROUND THE LOW FROM SOUTH TO NORTH. THE BULK OF THE PRECIP THIS MORNING WILL BE MAINLY SOUTH OF THE GOLDEN GATE WITH THE HEAVIEST RAINFALL OVER THE SANTA CRUZ MTS AND BIG SUR COAST/SANTA LUCIA MTS. THERE ARE ALSO A FEW EMBEDDED HEAVY SHOWERS THAT ARE DROPPING A QUICK 0.25-0.5 INCHES OF RAIN IN ABOUT 45-60 MINUTES. A FEW LIGHTNING STRIKES WERE ALSO OBSERVED OFF THE BIG SUR COAST OVER THE LAST FEW HOURS AS WELL.
(At 10 am, I am up to .79″ and there is a break or a lull in the rain, but not the wind.)
8:00 am – Rain continues to rage, with a current total of .64″ Winds also still raging. Roof singing to me. Tried to let the dogs out, but Missy took one look outside, turned around, found a corner, and peed on the floor. Dakota hasn’t been outside since the lightning yesterday afternoon! She had her own accident during the night. She wouldn’t come out from under the bed for HOURS after the thunder and going outside is simply beyond her capabilities when it is raining this hard. At least the other three were brave, well-trained puppies. Just gotta work on those two girls.
5:00 am – the wind woke me up. At 4;52 am, the wind gusts hit 58 mph. Not quite as impressive as yesterday am, but still pretty healthy. A few minutes ago, the gauge said it was raining cats and dogs. (I really must look up the origin of that saying and get back to you on it.) My gauge is currently reading .27″ since midnight. The CHP website is not showing any road closures at this time. As with yesterday, I will continue to monitor conditions and bring you all the latest, so you don’t have to. One stop weather shopping. 😉
Source
Nobody knows for certain where the phrase ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’ comes from, though one possibility is that it originates from the 17th century in England when heavy rains would cause debris of all kinds including animals to wash out of the gutters.
Other languages have similarly expressive idioms for a heavy downpour.
Sources:
Wikipedia – http://www.ask.com/wiki/Raining_cats_and_dogs#c…
Phrases.org – http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/raining cats…
See Also: Idiom in Other Languages
Origin: The first time this phrase appeared in print was in Jonathan Swift’s A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation in 1738, in which he wrote, “I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs”. The phrase’s source before this time remains a mystery, despite the many theories that have been put forward to explain its origin.
Kate. Very AliceinWonderlandy. Not only unscheduled peering at the climate from high places, gauges and readings and sensory reports (more science than conferences with The Catepillar, The White Rabbit, The Deck of Cards). Plus a word puzzle! You are uniquely delighted with weather, geography, & language, and I am so very pleased to be a recipient of your fine observations.
I had heard that raining cats & dogs came from the days of thatch roofs. The animals would climb into the thatch to keep warm & the rain would take down the thatch & the cats & dogs with it. So it was literally raining cts & dogs
How about raining pitchforks? That’s what it’s been doing here. Dale, the border collie, loves this; Jasper, the chihuahua, does not. The cats don’t seem to care. One or the other of them runs in or out every time the door opens.
Here is a really nice discussion of the phrase and history of usage sent to me by Warren Doyle. It even mentions Betty’s “It’s raining pitchforks!” http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/rainingcats.html
My hubby’s expression was it was raining “pitchforks and nigger-babies”. Not at all PC, but his early days were spent working in the Oregon woods, so I suspect it might have been a logger version of the phrase. They were generally pretty foul mouthed and slanted toward the bigot spectrum. 🙁