“The crisp drenching rustle from the dry foliage of the perceptibly grateful trees …
     the little plants, in speechless ecstasy, receiving cupful after cupful into the outspread
     leaves that silently empty their gracious load, time after time, into the still expecting
     roots and open their hands still for more.”  
~ John Richard Vernon, “The Beauty of Rain,” 1863

Good show, El Niño! Please extend your performance dates and don’t forget the encore. Slowly the inches are adding up, seemingly drop by drop. The week started off with a bang, weather-wise; Sunday received 1.50 inches of rain and Monday’s alarm clock was apparently set to “Nature Sound” as a thunderstorm reverberated across the foothills at dawn. Is it too late to reach our normal rainfall total for the 2015-16 season?

What is “our normal rainfall total?” You may be surprised as we are often assigned an average intended for downtown Los Angeles, Glendale, Pasadena or Burbank. Although our geographical proximities are relatively close, the amount of rain received is not.

The following are approximate rain totals:

La Crescenta – 23.24, Los Angeles – 14.93, Glendale –17.50, Pasadena – 20.24

As the CV Weekly lands on our doorstep, meteorologists are closely monitoring Friday’s arrival of the next round of El Niño-driven storms. The biggest question is just how far south the low drops before making landfall. Thus far, the path is in a good line-up to deliver rain into our area although it wouldn’t take much for it to shift a bit too far south and leave us high and mostly dry. The prediction at present calls for 100% chance of rain totaling 1.5 inches in the foothills.

I was touched by the National Weather Service’s following statement: “Timing of the (storm) system is firming up and unfortunately may result in rain on the activities in Simi Valley on Friday.” I doubt a few raindrops could dampen the legacy and the memorial service of First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Reagan Library.

Beyond Friday and into next week temperatures will remain below normal and the skies will be mostly cloudy. A slight chance for light rain will linger through this time period so, unfortunately, measurable precipitation is unlikely.

Last week I wrote of our Deodar cedar tree. After consulting an arborist, my suspicion was confirmed. Our tree is suffering from drought stress, i.e. lack of water.
Good news … The tree can be saved by placing a soaker hose around its drip line and drinking water of the natural kind – rain.
Sue Kilpatrick is a
Crescenta Valley resident and
Official Skywarn Spotter for the
National Weather Service. Reach her at  suelkilpatrick@gmail.com.