Spring Storm on the Central Coast

Yesterday, April 11, I drove down the coast from Monterey to Pismo Beach accompanied by an unusually strong April storm. I stayed ahead of most of the rain, but was buffeted by 20-40 knot winds the whole way...mostly in the upper end of that range. Lost a baseball cap to the wind south of Big Sur. At this spot south of Lucia, the sea was relatively calm as a headland blocked the south winds. The stream running into the ocean was more robust than usual at this time of year.

I've been going to Pismo a couple times a year for over a decade and have never seen the wind as strong as it was yesterday. It blew numerous palm fronds off the trees surrounding the pool and hot tub and deposited them against the fence.

Though I didn't encounter too much rain during the drive, about an hour after I reached Pismo the bulk of the storm caught up to me and it pourred down in horizontal sheets. This pic was taken just before the rain stopped...the wind had already abated. Blow up the pic and you can see the raindrops sparkling in the sun. The plastic chairs on the lawn were set up for a wedding, which had to be moved inside.

The sun after the storm produced a full rainbow, but only a fair-to-middlin' one in terms of brightness.

A beautiful sunset finished the day on a fine note.