We’re used to time-bending drives in Southern California, watching our ETAs get longer as a substitute of shorter as site visitors jams develop. So I used to be resigned however not stunned when my 66-mile drive from Ventura to Elysian Park stretched from 86 minutes to 100 minutes Thursday afternoon.
What I didn’t count on was hail. On the primary day of August. Round 2:25 p.m. After driving by way of almost 100 levels within the San Fernando Valley.
Now you realize why I’ve seven sweatshirts and jackets in my automobile. Always.
Extra weirdly, my journey began with temperatures within the low 70s in Ventura, the place the spring and an excellent chunk of the summer time have been cool and overcast. We’ve had some pretty blue-sky days in late July with temperatures within the low 80s, however Thursday, the clouds had been again for an excellent a part of the day.
After I took my stroll that morning the temperature was within the low 60s, chilly sufficient to warrant a sweatshirt. However by 12:45 p.m., once I headed into L.A., it was round 70 levels. I anticipated it to be an excellent 10 levels hotter, so I wore shorts and a sleeveless shirt for my stroll by way of Elysian Park whereas reporting on a narrative.
As anticipated, by the point I climbed the Conejo Cross on the 101 Freeway heading east, the temperature climbed rapidly.
I couldn’t inform this inside my automobile in fact, because of air con, however my temperature sensor started climbing to the excessive 80s in Thousand Oaks and by the point I drove by way of Tarzana, the gauge learn 99 levels, simply 45 miles from the place I’d began.
I anticipated the temperature to remain within the 90s as I headed east, however as a substitute the skies clouded up and the temperature started dropping, right down to the low 80s.
And about 2:25 p.m. as I handed Forest Garden Cemetery within the Hollywood Hills on the 134 Freeway, tiny white balls started pelting my wildshield. They had been smaller than the smallest peas, however exhausting sufficient to make staccato tap-tap-taps as they struck my windshield and melted into tiny droplets of water.
By the point I reached the West Loop Trailhead in Elysian Park 20 minutes later, the skies had been damaged clouds, so I grabbed my sweatshirt, making certain, in fact, that the solar would get away a short while later.
The drive dwelling round 5:30 p.m. was predictably gradual however comparatively uneventful weather-wise.
In the meantime a extended warmth wave is sweeping by way of inland areas of the state. My one bizarre climate day isn’t indicative of a wider development — the Nationwide Climate Service famous a “seemingly unending warmth wave” in July — however is exemplary of the microclimates we expertise in Southern California. It could be triple digits in a single spot, hailing momentarily in one other.
One good factor about driving west, nonetheless, is a entrance row seat to spectacular sunsets. There have been nonetheless clouds, however so wispy they’d an iridescent sheen like spun sugar.
And the sundown — bits of clouds turned deep salmon pink and plum — didn’t disappoint.
