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Entries tagged with 'Weather'
Posted Sep. 4, 2007,
To Live and Die of Heat Stroke in L.A.
By Ann Magnuson
We're having a heat wave and, like Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, I'M DYING HERE! In all seriousness, it looks like this heat has already killed four people. Temperatures are risin' and it isn't suprisin' that tempers are flarin', dreams are feverin' and our cats are weaving around like drunks. Poor critters... all of us. At least today it's cooling down... a little. We returned from Joshua Tree yesterday only to discover it was hotter in L.A. than in the desert! And we were told it was even hotter over the weekend! Some of us do not have air conditioning... so it's off to the movies for us! Too bad Dog Day Afternoon isn't playing in an icy cold cineplex near us. What a great movie! What a great trailer!
Posted May. 9, 2007,
L.A. Burns!
By Ann Magnuson
This latest fire in Griffith Park is blazing out of control! It's Tuesday night about 10 p.m. here in L.A. as I write this and it doesn't look good. The base camp that the fire department set up in the park is surrounded by fire! Who knows what is going to happen? I've never seen anything like this in my life! The photo above was taken by one Johnny Kobra, just one of the local Angelenos who have submitted their own photos to the L.A. Times website (which has astounding photos of their own -- see below.)
Kobra's pic was taken on Vermont Avenue, where I was earlier this evening dropping some mail off at the post office. The flames were 60-70 feet high and formed an apocalyptic backdrop to the palm trees and houses in the hills of Los Feliz. I couldn't stop staring and kept driving to get better views. Everyone was out on the street staring, pointing, taking pictures. The helicopters were whizzing back and forth from the Silver Lake reservoir where they were picking up water to drop on the flames creeping over the hillside at breakneck speed.
Posted Apr. 23, 2007,
April Showers Bring L.A. Flowers
By Ann Magnuson
After the downpour on Friday, the sun peaked out from behind the clouds and turned Tinsel Town into a gleaming Technicolor Munchkin Land. Not enough to put a dent in our drought, the rain did bring out the best in my rose garden!
Posted Apr. 16, 2007,
Nor'easter
By Carol Lee
I've been in Raleigh, North Carolina on a press trip since Thursday and as luck would have it, the nasty Nor'easter decided to whip trough my travel route on the day I was supposed to return. I managed to rebook my flight for this morning with Jet Blue. But after stalling on the runway for two hours, burning fuel, the captain made the announcement to reevaluate the status due to high winds. So here I am stuck at the airport! Here's a picture of my Jet Blue plane getting re-fueled and my captain answering questions from the passengers after we de-boarded...
Posted Apr. 13, 2007,
An Even Crazier-Ass Idiot Wind Knocks Out Power in L.A.
By Ann Magnuson
Wow! Yesterday's wind storm knocked out power all over town, including up on our hill in Silver Lake. Yup, didn't have no electricity for over 17 hours! Lived life like back in that there 19th Century. That's righty neighbor! No heat, no TV, no internet, no blogging!!! But the gas stove worked and we had plenty of candles (which they say you are not supposed to use but, whatever).
Over dinner -- which tasted better than ever (I'm told that when one sense is diminished -- sight -- another is enhanced -- taste), the Mister asks me, he says, "Hey Ma, ever been to The Gamble House over Pasdena way?" Why goodness gracious! What a silly question to ask! Of course I have! And he knows it! But I kept those vexing thoughts to myself.
Posted Apr. 3, 2007,
L.A. Fire Threatens Hollywood Sign, Bathes City in Flattering Amber Light
By Ann Magnuson
Here are some snaps of last Friday's dramatic brush fire up in Griffith Park. When I first saw the mushroom cloud (while pumping gas on Silver Lake Blvd. near the 101N on-ramp) I thought my house on the nearby hill could be on fire. In a panic I drove back home and was relieved to see the smoke was much further away. In fact, as you can see in this photo taken near my home at the time, I discovered that the disaster hit the Valley! Could a plane taking off from Burbank airport have crashed? Might one of the studios been bombed by a terrorist attack? (No such luck) Could a fissure on the San Andreas Fault unleashed a new volcano and began the first reel of our glorious Apocalyptic end?
No, just two teenagers from Illinois playing with fireworks on the edge of Griffith Park which resulted int the destruction of about 160 acres... and killed God knows how many poor birds and animals! Those kids should be put in stocks in the middle of Universal City Walk and made to feel the ire of the populus! OR be forced to recover every animal burned in that terrible fire! And plant every tree, bush and wildflower destroyed!
Posted Mar. 30, 2007,
Tiny Tornados, Dust Devils or Just Bad Ass Wind?
By Ann Magnuson
Not to diminish the tragedies connected with the 65 (!!!) deadly tornados that recently devestated parts of the Great Plains, but here in self-absorbed L.A. everybody's been talking about the freaky weather we had on Tuesday. A huge black cloud the size of Speilberg's mothership hovered over the San Fernando Valley then made it's ominous way over the hills and descended onto Hollywood. There were tiny tornados of trash whipping down the boulevards, blasting past billboards that asked the eternal question "What Hath God Wrought?" (The adverts were for some Hillary Swank movie about plagues and the End Times and blood and... gee, I hope the two time Oscar winner was paid a LOT for that).