I wanted to call this post "What An Amazing day" !! Which it was .. I have never seen or experienced a day like today. We had (in Germany) strange warmish Santa Ana type winds. Then add to that a chorus of clear blue skies, then dark storm clouds, then bright rainbows, then clear blue skies, then clouds from nowhere, hail, rain, high winds, then no winds and now clear blue skies.
We see in the world news that Los Angeles, California was recently whacked with unusually powerful Santa Ana winds. Really, one would have to go ask the Chumash... unfortunately, they were all but wiped out.
The mild temperature (for December) with weather more akin to March / April .. all the Seasons in one day. Bright blue skies and sunshine, dark grey storm clouds, bright rainbows, light rain, and then suddenly out of nowhere a slow turning downward pressure that moved through the town like something out of a dream.
That downward wind pressure was like a giant gentle tornado of leaves without any cloud. It punched the side of a building and the whole plaster facing just crumbled to the street below. I never saw anything like that in my life. The rotating wind was not even violent. Yet, it hit the building with a frequency that fractured the plaster covering the bricks.
Behind the storm wind came a low dark cloudy rainstorm filled with light hail-stones. The storm winds were not cold. These were not icy storm winds. A lot of the hail fell as mushy rain. The wind was not blustery; but pleasant. It seems the twisting rotation power - as slow moving as it was - was enough to take down large trees.
We humans, as well as the animals and plants, are simply going to have to adapt to this transition / transformation.
We see in the world news that Los Angeles, California was recently whacked with unusually powerful Santa Ana winds. Really, one would have to go ask the Chumash... unfortunately, they were all but wiped out.
Brian Fagan: The ChumashThis has nothing to do with "Climate Change" [The Idiots guide To Reality] .. the closest word is TRANSFORMATION. Whatever this transformation it effects all things. This is a transformation of the cycles and currents, the weather, the atmosphere, water, volcanoes, atmospheric temperatures, humidity, wind currents, Jet Stream, ocean currents all the way down to us humans and animals.
The Chumash launched their canoes from open beaches. They had great respect for rogue breakers and were prepared to wait patiently for a quiet interval. Then they would carry the tomol into the water until she was just afloat. While the captain held her bow into the waves, passengers and cargo would be positioned aboard. Then the crew scrambled in, while a fourth man held the canoe, then gave her a sharp push offshore as the paddlers worked to take her beyond the breaker line.
Each paddler sat on his heels on a pad of sea grass, paddling with an even rhythm, using his shoulders to do the work. Soon the tomol would be ewe 'alhoyoy'o, moving swiftly through the water. A skilled crew could keep up a steady pace all day, paddling to a canoe song repeated over and over again.
The Helek's crew found their speed depended on the wind direction. With an 8-knot following wind and swell, they could make 6 to 8 knots. But if the same 8-knotter blew from ahead, the tomol made no headway against wind and waves. Almost certainly the Chumash seafarers made their island journeys and fished offshore during calm weather and during the morning hours, when winds are calm. Under such conditions average passage speeds of 7 knots to and from the offshore islands were probably not uncommon.
Fernando Librado told Harrington, "Canoe faring is dangerous, and drownings are frequent. There would be no coming home, for a wind or wave might capsize a tomol and a man could drown . . . Rather than make the crossing of The-Ocean-where-the-Islands-are-in-Front . . . the Indians hug the mainland shore.. :" Chumash seamen rarely made passages at night, but when they did they navigated by the stars. For weeks on end they would leave their canoes ashore, especially in September and October, when the celebrated Santa Ana winds blow [83] strongly from the northeast. But Chumash seafarers were vital to a society living on both islands and mainland. As members of the Brotherhood-of-the-Canoe, they served as sea traders, exchanging scarce raw materials from the mainland for manufactured goods from the islands. Everyone's survival depended on cooperation, on the exchange of foodstuffs and raw materials between widely separated communities, both in times of plenty and in drought years, when food was scarce.
Most of the year, "The Ocean-Where-the-Islands-Are-in-Front" appears benign and predictable, forming a sheltered channel where moderate winds and air temperatures rarely fluctuate, rarely become too hot or too cold. Bright skies and clear days cycle for weeks on end. Natural coastal upwelling of cold water from the depths of the ocean replenishes the surface layers of the Pacific with nutrients. Chumash fishermen harvested plankton-feeding anchovies by the thousands as they moved inshore in summer. They also harvested the larger fish that fed on the anchovies. Not completely dependent on fish and sea mammals, the Chumash hunted mule deer, ate shellfish, and foraged for acorns and other plant foods. One Spanish missionary wrote, "It may be said for them, the entire day is one continuous meal:"
The mild temperature (for December) with weather more akin to March / April .. all the Seasons in one day. Bright blue skies and sunshine, dark grey storm clouds, bright rainbows, light rain, and then suddenly out of nowhere a slow turning downward pressure that moved through the town like something out of a dream.
That downward wind pressure was like a giant gentle tornado of leaves without any cloud. It punched the side of a building and the whole plaster facing just crumbled to the street below. I never saw anything like that in my life. The rotating wind was not even violent. Yet, it hit the building with a frequency that fractured the plaster covering the bricks.
Behind the storm wind came a low dark cloudy rainstorm filled with light hail-stones. The storm winds were not cold. These were not icy storm winds. A lot of the hail fell as mushy rain. The wind was not blustery; but pleasant. It seems the twisting rotation power - as slow moving as it was - was enough to take down large trees.
We humans, as well as the animals and plants, are simply going to have to adapt to this transition / transformation.
