“Times of calamity and confusion 
have been productive 
for the greatest minds.” 
Charles Caleb Colton

The State of California experienced yet another unusual weather phenomenon yesterday and today. Hurricane Hilary, which was downgraded to a tropical storm prior to reaching southern California, had wreaked havoc in various parts of Mexico. California had not experienced a tropical storm in more than eighty years! While no longer a hurricane, the storm soaked the southern part of our state with record-breaking rainfall. Not surprisingly, this has resulted in significant flooding, mudslides, and general mayhem in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Palm Springs, and other neighboring communities.

Here in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the effects of the storm have been minimal. Today was overcast with significantly cooler temperatures than we’ve enjoyed in the past several weeks. We also received a bit of rain, while gusty winds pummeled the area throughout the day. Definitely not the weather one would normally expect in August.

I’ll have to wait to see the evening news to get a better idea of the overall impact the storm has had in the southern part of the state.

Our climate is most definitely changing. Some argue that it’s all about human-caused global warming. Others claim that climate change is a normal part of our meteorological history. I don’t know who’s right. What I do know is that the climate I experienced, and came to expect during the first sixty years of my life, has most definitely changed — locally, nationally, and internationally. 

The winter of 2023-2024 will be interesting. Will we have anything close to the record-breaking rainfall we received last winter, or will California return to the drought conditions of the previous seven years? This remains to be seen. Attitudes which embrace such wisdom as “go with the flow” or “one day at a time” might prove to be quite beneficial over the next several months.