By Mary O’KEEFE

In continuing with the theme of the ShakeOut (see my story on the front page of this week’s paper) I want to cover the myth of “earthquake weather.”

When I first moved to California, I heard about all kinds of “signs” of a pending tremor but the one I heard the most about dealt with weather.

In the fourth century B.C., Aristotle proposed that earthquakes were caused by winds trapped in subterranean caves. Small tremors were thought to have been caused by air pushing on cavern roofs and large ones by the air breaking the surface, according to the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey).

Yep, Aristotle likened the cause of earthquakes to air trapped in the earth’s tummy [caves] and then released in a great big “breaking wind” event.

Nowadays we would say, “Oh, that’s just silly” … or maybe not. There are so many outrageous rumors going around about everything that it’s difficult to tell the difference between those who realize this is real science and others who may be working at this very minute on an antacid for the Earth. At any rate, the idea of the Earth breaking wind was the birth of the theory of earthquake weather.

“Because a large amount of air was trapped underground, the weather would be hot and calm before an earthquake. A later theory stated that earthquakes occur in calm, cloudy conditions and were usually preceded by strong winds, fireballs and meteors,” according to the USGS.

There is no such thing as earthquake weather; also solar flares and magnetic storms do not cause earthquakes, states the USGS.

Maybe humans wanted to know the cause of earthquakes because they desperately needed to find a way to predict them. Now, we do have the earthquake early warning system but it doesn’t predict earthquakes; it detects earthquakes quickly and can alert many people before the shaking begins.

“Statistically, there is approximately an equal distribution of earthquakes in cold weather, hot weather, rainy weather, etc.,” the USGS states.

So get ready and be ready – there will be no long term warnings except for the fact that all geologists have been constantly telling Californians that it is “not if but when” we will feel that jolt that lets us all know that, when it comes down to it, Mother Earth is still in charge.

For us locally we have seen some mountain storms that brought rain the first part of the week. The tropical moisture is a “bit unusual,” according to Rich Thompson, meteorologist with National Oceanic and Atmosphere Agency.

“We don’t often see [this] in October,” he said. “It’s not unheard of but not typical to see tropical precipitation.”

The rains are the monsoonal pattern of August rather than October.

It should be dry today, Thursday, and Friday with a change for more moisture expected over the weekend, Thompson added.

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I do want to take a moment to talk again about Sue Kilpatrick, the community activist, mom and CVW weather writer. Last Saturday, family and friends gathered for her memorial. Her husband, sons and friends spoke of a generous, determined, devoted and fun woman. I knew Sue as a community activist/supporter and as the go-to weather writer.

She never backed down from helping her community either in support of the CV Town Council or Prom Plus. I took over writing this weather column after her passing not knowing how it was going to work out. She was a hard pen to follow. Let’s face it: Weather is not the most exciting thing to write about especially in Southern California where we actually get excited when a few drops of rain fall but because Sue had so much fun with it I was able to adopt that style and move forward to write about it.

I am definitely more of a sci-fi geek than weather expert like she was but her humor and love of writing came through with each column, ultimately giving me the chance to have the same kind of fun she did.