Susan Strom
EF5
Never in my life have I driven through more ferocious winds than I did last night in Los Angeles. I was hearing reports of 80mph gusts with 40mph sustained in the LA basin and hurricane force in canyons and passes. I nixed the idea of taking the high road through any foothills or Pasadena in favor of the 10 east. It was a fight to hold the wheel steady.
From Thurs morning all through the night my CB crackled with seasoned truckers who were actually scared. The high winds toppled some big rigs earlier on the inland freeways. Los Ang called it a one-in-ten-years wind event.
Heavy precip the night before had me contemplating whether or not to even attempt the Tejon Pass (the Golden State freeway and main connection between Southern and Northern California that goes into the mountains). I had driven from Sacramento. I went for it anyway, but slogged through mushy snow, heavy rain and extreme gusts. Just as the LA basin came within view, I got a room in the little mountain town of Castaic just before they shut the freeway down until 10:45am yesterday. I was amazed at the speed of the clouds whirring over me.
I fought the freakish wind all day driving east on the Santa Monica freeway. I went to the beach looking for high seas. Turns out that the extreme ocean behavior that kept even surfers away and closed piers took place already, when I was up on the pass fighting snow. Rancho Palos Verdes was out of power along with 210,000 other customers. I have relatives in PV and I imagine they were in the dark awhile.
I fought a 3-hour backup from Venice Beach to San Bernardino on my way to the deserts. A gigantic windpower field exists in the canyon near Palm Springs. There must be hundreds of industrial-sized windmill power stations there. Some of the blades are staggering in size, looking to be about 5 houses wide at least. They were spinning at a comical rate.
As tired as I was, the day's apex of insanely high wind still lay ahead. The Chiriaco Summit, a desert mountain that climbs out of Palm Springs was keeping even the truckers away. I waited at the cafe & fuel stop for an hour just to take a rest from wheel-gripping. Motorists talked about nothing else and wondered if they would make it home. The truckers were very nervous, most decided they had enough and pulled off. The laminar clouds above Chiriaco were so highly sheared they looked like boomerangs.
I'm exhausted. Through it all, I was treated to a very strange sight. The Hollywood sign was crystal clear in a smogless sky, even from the Santa Monica freeway. Eerie. I'm tired. I'm going to bed and will sleep really hard.
From Thurs morning all through the night my CB crackled with seasoned truckers who were actually scared. The high winds toppled some big rigs earlier on the inland freeways. Los Ang called it a one-in-ten-years wind event.
Heavy precip the night before had me contemplating whether or not to even attempt the Tejon Pass (the Golden State freeway and main connection between Southern and Northern California that goes into the mountains). I had driven from Sacramento. I went for it anyway, but slogged through mushy snow, heavy rain and extreme gusts. Just as the LA basin came within view, I got a room in the little mountain town of Castaic just before they shut the freeway down until 10:45am yesterday. I was amazed at the speed of the clouds whirring over me.
I fought the freakish wind all day driving east on the Santa Monica freeway. I went to the beach looking for high seas. Turns out that the extreme ocean behavior that kept even surfers away and closed piers took place already, when I was up on the pass fighting snow. Rancho Palos Verdes was out of power along with 210,000 other customers. I have relatives in PV and I imagine they were in the dark awhile.
I fought a 3-hour backup from Venice Beach to San Bernardino on my way to the deserts. A gigantic windpower field exists in the canyon near Palm Springs. There must be hundreds of industrial-sized windmill power stations there. Some of the blades are staggering in size, looking to be about 5 houses wide at least. They were spinning at a comical rate.
As tired as I was, the day's apex of insanely high wind still lay ahead. The Chiriaco Summit, a desert mountain that climbs out of Palm Springs was keeping even the truckers away. I waited at the cafe & fuel stop for an hour just to take a rest from wheel-gripping. Motorists talked about nothing else and wondered if they would make it home. The truckers were very nervous, most decided they had enough and pulled off. The laminar clouds above Chiriaco were so highly sheared they looked like boomerangs.
I'm exhausted. Through it all, I was treated to a very strange sight. The Hollywood sign was crystal clear in a smogless sky, even from the Santa Monica freeway. Eerie. I'm tired. I'm going to bed and will sleep really hard.
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