Optimistic

According to Google (and where else would I get my weather information?) it got to as low as 37 degrees in Pasadena sometime in the last 24 hours. I bundle up so much you'd never know I lived in northern Illinois for much of my life. The only person in our family who dislikes the cold more than I do is the dog, and he's a soCal native.

It rained quite a bit yesterday. Southern California's in its third year of drought and we do need rain, just--not all at once. Autumn's Station Fire left very little vegetation in the mountains above town. Instead we've got thousands of acres of ash. Mix that up with a few days' worth of downpour and you get mudslides.

We're used to "fire season." We're used to ash. We're even used to mudslides. But the Station Fire was the biggest in the recorded history of the Angeles National Forest, and this year the ash could come charging down the mountains in torrents of mud the likes of which haven't been seen in these parts before.

Could. Not necessarily will.

It's supposed to be sunny today. We'll have more rain later in the week. But I'm optimistic, which is easy for me to say because I live in a part of town that's not in any danger (fingers crossed). The most I have to worry about is that the dog refuses to go outside without an umbrella and since he lacks opposable thumbs (to cross his fingers or carry his umbrella), guess who gets to bundle up in all her winter finery and accompany him.

Altadenablog is always a good place to check for updates on severe road and weather conditions in the mountains.