Dennis’ Local Almanac
By DENNIS McTIGHE
Wet weather marches on
Laguna’s lofty rainfall totals continue to pile up here in the waning days of March. Out in the canyon on Canyon Acres Drive at Peter Ott’s house, the rain total since July 1, 2022 is up to 22.43 inches. One mile away at Spyder Wills’ place there is 19.38 inches, and over at Greg Weaver’s house in Costa Mesa, there’s nearly 23 inches in his gauge.
It’s the first time since the 2010-11 season that our season’s total exceeded 20 inches and guess what...more is on the way by midweek. There’s a strong low north of Hawaii, and it’s loaded with moisture and headed in our direction. In addition, there’s a strong low with lots of cold, unstable air as it plunges to the SE out of the Gulf of Alaska. These two systems are expected to merge as they set a target at Central and Southern California and will add to the already swollen rain and snow totals. What drought?
Last Thursday’s rare tornado in Montebello was classified an E=F 1 with peak winds of 115 mph. No casualties were reported. The rare twister was a little less than 50 yards wide and was only on the ground for a couple of minutes. The tornado tore up a couple of roofs in an industrial area of Montebello, a few miles east of downtown L.A.
An average of around four or five twisters touch down in our state, but nearly all of them are classified as EF-0 with winds less than 80 mph. Most of them occur from January through April. There was one twister that hit east of Fresno back in March 1983 and made it up to EF-2 with winds up to 135 mph and stayed on the ground for around 20 minutes. However, all it did was chew up a bunch of real estate, tearing up a couple barns in the process – but that was about it, fortunately.
On Sunday afternoon, folks in parts of the Deep South weren’t so lucky with 25 killed in violent EF-3 and EF-4 tornadoes. We’re moving towards the peak season for violent tornadoes with April and May being the prime months for such activity. During my weather career, I’ve witnessed firsthand two separate EF-4 tornadoes; the first one on April 1, 1967 in Amarillo, Texas while I was in Air Force Weather School and the second one on May 10, 1971 near Norman, Okla.
Tornado Intensity Rating System:
An EF-0 has winds less than 75 mph and damage is light and might include damage to tree branches, chimneys and billboards. Shallow-rooted trees may be pushed over. An EF-1 has winds of 75-112 mph with moderate damage where mobile homes may be pushed off foundations. That’s why they call ‘em mobile homes. Cars may be pushed over to the side of roads as well.
An EF-2 has winds of 113-135 mph. Incidentally, the EF stands for Enhanced Fujita Scale. An EF-2 can cause considerable damage – roofs can be torn off, houses and mobile homes demolished and large trees can be uprooted.
An EF-3 has winds up to 170 mph and damage is severe. Even well- constructed houses may be torn apart, trees uprooted and cars can be lifted off the ground.
An EF-4 has winds up to 200 mph where damage is devastating. Houses can be totally leveled and cars thrown up in the air. Objects become deadly missiles.
Finally, an EF-5 has winds in excess of 200 mph where damage is incredible. Larger structures are lifted off foundations and carried away as cars also become missiles. Less than 2% of all tornadoes reach an intensity of this magnitude. The strongest tornado in U.S. history had winds up to 318 mph in May 2013 in a town called Moore, Okla. and at one point was 2.5 miles wide!
See you next Tuesday!
At last Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Laguna Beach Police Chief Jeff Calvert and members of his team presented the City of Laguna Beach’s 2022 Crime Statistics. I find this type of information particularly important because day-in and day-out, the news in so many forms comes out about how our world is falling apart.
Laguna Beach Unified School District officials met with the community last evening to introduce a facilities master plan that they were, in fact, tasked to produce, that looks at potential needs across the community. Included in those ideas with the high school were a district office replacement building, a new aquatics center, parking, theater enhancements and field updates; at Thurston were courtyard enhancements, a gym expansion, theater upgrades and security fencing; at Top of the World was a new lunch shelter, multiple outdoor learning areas, field upgrades and state required transitional kindergarten facilities; and at El Morro, included were the same transitional kindergarten requirements, playfield upgrades, a new two-story classroom building, and more.