Created with Fayette Designs' Hibernate and Woodland Carols collections
Font is Cookie, photos are personal
Description of photos: 9 feet of snow fell in California over the last week. The 1st two photos are from friends' homes in Twin Peaks & Running Springs. I also saw video of snow falling at another friend's home in LaVerne. The bottom photo is from Yosemite National Park which is closed due to excessive snowfall.
Journaling text: In addition to personal experiences from my friends, the news has included many more examples of the impacts of Blizzard 2023. The Hollywood sign rarely has snow on it but it did this week. The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for San Diego for the 1st time ever; a blizzard warning for Los Angeles was issued for the 1st time since 1989. My friends along with many others are stuck in their homes. So far my friends still have plenty of supplies, but will have lots of snow to shovel to dig out their homes & driveways. But that won't help much unless the roads are plowed as well. There's also concern that rain may follow the snow, causing icy conditions. The snow also hit the Pacific Northwest & then went through the Upper Midwest. While this storm system dumped all the snow, areas in the South & East experienced record high temperatures. Meteorolgists are saying that an extreme configuration of the jet stream brought the cold temperatures & snow to areas that don't normally have it. The jet stream bumped up against an inverted high pressure system that brought very high temperatures to the South & East, some as high as 30 degrees above normal. I'm hopeful that this extra snow will help alleviate some of the drought conditions & resulting fires in California & the West. However, because of these extreme weather conditions & others that have occurred recently, it seems clear to me that our efforts to improve global warming are not nearly enough. We need to do a lot better at reducing our energy consumption or our kids will inherit this mess!
