Storm of the Season

The storm predictions lived up to their hype. I’ve lived here in the Santa Cruz Mountains for over ten years now. The storm that came through on Friday was as bad as the worst of the storms I experienced during the last real El Niño in 1998-99. And Tahoe received anywhere from 4 to 10+ feet of snow, depending on the elevation, with some more on the way with another storm coming on Tuesday.

The power at my house went out at 9am on Friday and remained out until shortly after 7pm on Sunday. That’s 58 hours without power, and essentially three days. When the power goes out at my house, so does the water because my water comes from a well using an electric pump. I’m a little lucky because I’m downhill from where a very small amount of water is stored. But it’s measured in the tens of gallons not hundreds. By Sunday afternoon, even though I had been conservative with my water usage, it was gone. That’s when I seriously started considering checking into a hotel somewhere.

I shot the movie above around 8:30am on Friday from my door with the door open to get the best possible view. I wasn’t able to record the worst of the gusts, but if you watch it to the end, you can get an idea of how strong some of the winds were. These redwoods are massive. Well over 200 feet tall. Obviously, they’re able to grow that tall in part because of how they behave in strong winds. But that doesn’t make the sight of these giant trees swaying back and forth any less spectacular.