I post this for the benefit of those of you who don’t live in Los Angeles. It reminds me of a junior high memory. I went to one of those schools built in the 1950s with a broad bank of windows on the side of each classroom. During an English class it started to rain. The entire class spontaneously got up and ran to the window. The teacher, a transplant from New England was, at first, confused and then started laughing at us.
They just forgot to title the weathercast bit “STORM WATCH 2015!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and then show a reporter in full New England fishermans gear standing somewhere in the Valley watching it drizzle and reporting on the 52 accidents that have already been caused on the freeway by the “STORM!!!” 😉
The young daughter of an old boss of mine once wondered, after a very light dusting of snow-like stuff on their lawns and roofs overnight, if school was going to be called off that day for a “snow day”.
Born and Raised in SoCal, and yes, still embarrassed by the number of SoCal folk completely flummoxed by any “weather” situation.
Oh – and they also forgot with the Earthquake bit at the end to have the TV or radio station have a “Breaking News!” segment to listen to people calling in to report a “rolling motion” or, “Well, Bob, I thought it was more like a short jolt, then a rolling motion…” 😉
Yes! The ubiquitous “storm watch” hysteria! Another feature of any rain event in our neighborhood is the sound of car crashes and emergency response sirens on Sunset Blvd, beginning about 5 minutes after the rain starts falling.
Laughing hysterically in San Diego (grew up in LA). 1/10 of an inch of rain requires “team coverage” from every local news station, including 2 reporters out in the field to describe how everyone was coping and the traffic ‘copter reporting how backed up the freeways were. If we get more than that, Mission Valley will have flooded within an inch of its life and some idiot gets stuck trying to drive across a flooded intersection. But that’s what you get when you build in a river bed.
So true about earthquakes. Don’t talk to me if it isn’t over a 5. Anything less is just a fun, E-ticket ride.
There was a very minor earthquake in southern England recently, where they never have earthquakes. It was something like a level 4. The press was immediately full of wild stories, followed shortly by a lot of images of such earthquake-related disasters as fallen over garbage cans with sarcastic titles like “WE WILL REBUILD!”
Ha! I’m in AZ, so I get what you mean! My phone’s emergency alert system goes off whenever it gets a little cloudy. And I get that same look of confusion when the newbies gawk at the cactus, LOL.
The words “chance of snow” or “light dusting by morning” causes bananas, milk, and bread to disappear from store shelves. We all remember what happened in the Blizzard of 93…lol.
“Black ice” causes even more panic!
Team Coverage is funny when the crew is sitting on and exit near the interstate looking skyward for a tornado that is possible.
This is what happens in Louisiana (the other LA) when it snows. “OMG! It’s a whole INCH! Close the schools! Shut down the government! Build a snowman before it melts! You’ll never be able to do it again in your whole LIFE!” Yankees laugh at us too.
We live in WA, and cant help but chuckle when family in California talks about how people drive in the rain. We have a saying here, If you wait to do something till its not raining, it’ll never get done! That being said, there are some conditions I wont go out in.
AKA, why life-long Oregonians laugh hysterically (unless we’re driving, and then we’re cursing) at Californians’ reactions to the first rains of the seasons in the Willamette Valley.
We’ve had an unusually dry summer up here and the first real rain was greeted with tears of joy and people dancing in it.
Same here in Washington. The first rain after the drought we DID dance in the rain, glorious, glorious rain.