“Even with all our technology and the inventions that make modern life so much easier than it once was, it takes just one big natural disaster to wipe all that away and remind us that, here on Earth, we’re still at the mercy of nature.”

~ Neil deGrasse Tyson, American astrophysicist

Late Friday, Dec. 10, through sunrise on Saturday a tornado ravaged a path through Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Illinois. A National Weather Service preliminary study indicates its size as 223 miles long with an Enhanced Fujita (EF) intensity between EF-3 and EF-5. We watched in heartbreak and awe as the extent of devastation became known.

Tornadoes are violently rotating columns of air that are in contact with both the surface of the Earth and cumulonimbus clouds. True, the ones that touch down in Southern California are nowhere as big as the killer storms that hit other parts of the country, but that doesn’t mean we’re immune. Alongside wildfires and earthquakes, tornadoes are included on the California list of natural disasters.

The LA Times has chronicled them for decades. They’re usually small and cause limited damage, nothing like the storms seen elsewhere. An exception occurred in 1983 when a tornado stripped part of the roof off the Los Angeles Convention Center before making its way south along Broadway, ripping apart houses, smashing brick storefronts and overturning cars. More than 150 buildings were damaged. Thirty-two people were hurt.

Originating in the Pacific, our tornadoes come as winter thunderstorms. As some storms approach the coast, cold air above the ocean mixes with warmer air on land. Atmospheric instability forms, on rare occasions.

Today, Thursday, a weak storm will likely bring rain to areas north of Point Conception but only a small chance south. Dry weather will prevail through the weekend. Good shopping weather! A stormier weather pattern is forecast to begin Monday as the storm door opens with a low and sets up a broad moist flow pattern into Southern California.

Rain … It is almost impossible to forecast timing. Overall, it’s a mix of cloudy skies and showers and it is more likely that every area will see rain at some point in the week leading to Christmas.

A white mountaintop Christmas is possible! But our real gift came with the little over five inches of rain to start the week … with more to come!