December 31, 2007

Kyle R's Report for the last day of 2007:

68 and sunny and everyone is bundled up. Either everyone in Hollywood is an actor, or they all have a hyperactive thyroid.

December 30, 2007

Fashion and weather Reporter Kyle Writeman Rieter tells me that today:

Black t-shirt was fine on its own. Good thing I was wearing one. White t-shirt would have needed a light jacket. I don't have time for that shit.

December 29, 2007

KR SayZ:

Not a cloud in the sky, not a car on the 101, not a writer in the studios. Once it begins snowing and gas drops below $3.60 a gallon, Los Angeles will officially become America's version of Ottawa.

December 28, 2007

KYLE RIETER REPORTS:

The early morning daylight tried desperately to fall through the clouds like an old man vomiting Sunny Delight through tufts of soot-flavored cotton candy. By midday, the sun had claimed victory and Angelenos benefited from its warmth, though it seems to have negatively affected their ability to write a compelling simile.

December 27, 2007

Guest writer Kyle R's first Christmas break contribution:

"Everything is sunny above the clouds, but I hear L.A. was nice too." Sorry, I just got back.

December 26, 2007

December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas from 80 & Sunny!

Sweet Amanda Street Reports:

After Santa finished passing out presents across he globe, he stopped at his final destination- Los Angeles, CA where he traded in his fury suit for cropped pants, a t-shirt (yes, it was red) and a snow white cardigan- perfect for the southern California Christmas weather. Had baby Jesus been born here today- he would have been baptised in the great blue sea- perhaps a bit chilly for us but after all, he is God or enlightened at least. He would have dipped in and then after a cry of delight- soaked in the warmth of our dedicated sun. Recommended dress for today's weather- One pair of cropped pants (preferably red),one red t-shirt and one snow white cardigan.

December 24, 2007

I'm back in the motherland so Amanda S was kind enough to send me this poetic recollection of her weather experience:

Today was gentle in Echo Park. The sun kissed my face and I kissed it back. It was a soft kiss- familiar and welcome. It spread to my arms and knees and at moments it made me pause with love. In Burbank however- the sun pulled out it's mini daggers and threatened to pierce my skin. I looked for a loving spot but when I could not find one, I left quickly as I prefer kisses to daggers.

December 22 & 23

Cold and traffic-y on the way outta town. Tough windy times with enough sun to guide the way to a guest writer for the next week.

December 21, 2007

60 and sunny enough to burn off the spacebag smell on a few of my sweaters. Should be great weather for caroling the next couple days.

December 20, 2007

Rain one day shame on you. Rain two days in a row, shame on me.

December 19, 2007

Listen, when they close down the car washes around here you can't help but think that North vs South California civil war is about to commence. What other explanation there it be? Chilly wet weather? Yeah, right.

December 18, 2007

Dumped on.

Getting inches of rain at a time in Los Angeles is as rare as ketchup in a proper steakhouse. We all need something once in a while to louse up an already well-done traffic situation.

December 17, 2007

So maybe yesterday's entry was lame. One could choose to see it that way I guess.

Maybe I was so overwhelmed by the beauty of two days in a row of succulent white zinfandel sunshine that my heart and the blog skipped a beat.

December 16, 2007

Patton museum.

December 15, 2005

Oh by gosh by golly. Sunshine and high-sixties Saturday. Sweet beams of light encouraged goodwill and peace on earth and dog walking.

December 14, 2007

Cold, slow, and sunny. That's today in reverse order.

December 13, 2007

A black cloud named the Mitchell Report blackened the city today and left the streets dour and spiritless.

Nah, I just wanted to be dramatic. It was another beautiful crisp day. It got so cold after sundown that I could see my breath. Break out the space heater.

December 12, 2007

Low sixties and sunny today. It's heavy traffic season for the post office. Do people leave gifts for their postal carrier anymore? That is a question that has a lot to do with the weather because there isn't anybody that has to deal with the weather more than a postal carrier. Weathermen, truck drivers, cops, construction workers, and zookeepers probably deal a bit as well but they aren't bringing me my copies of Oprah and New Mexico Magazine.

December 11, 2007

There is a reason that light is used in religious texts as symbol of life and love everlasting. It is as we are. It is the source of all things that beget all other things. We are born into the light and we walk toward it in death. Imagine, if you will, what it is like to live in a very special awestriking inspired place where the earth is golden golden gold all day long and the light makes you in love with everything it shines on. Imagine a dumpster smothered in shimmering god light and a traffic jam peppered with Jehovah starbursts. This is December in Los Angeles -- longer, slower more thoughtful light shining all about with the intensity of a serious discussion.

December 10, 2007

Jimmy says the weather almost had a hint of spring today. A near perfect day in LA.

December 9, 2007

Perfect and light. 61, sunny, and bright.

December 8, 2007

Anyone else have ants in their pants to get to the winter equinox? It is all we can talk about here. It's not that it's 60 degrees, we like it a little bit, we'll even wear ridiculous woolen sweaters - the same kind that the midwesterns leave in the trunks of their cars incase they have to live off snow and road kill for a couple days. It's just that we value our sunshine more so it's not so fun when you leave brunch at the darkness of night is falling.

December 7, 2007

Like the hair of some one I know, Fridays have succumbed to greying.

December 6, 2007

She came back from New York today Miss Kelly K
and announced the clouds in the sky.

Oh me oh my she said
If I lived here I would die.

December 5, 2007

Low seventies with a sweet sippin' sunshine all day today. At night this place is as full of christmas and holiday cheer as anyplace on earth.

Weatherman Terms From My 1984 Book on Climate and Weather:
Synoptic weather guides give a synopsis or summary of the weather at any given time.
Prognostic maps show forecasts of the weather (the FUTURE).
Low air systems are called depressions.
High air systems are called anticyclones.

December 4, 2007

The light is all right.

High seventies outside the shade today. The kind of weather that makes people move here. I wouldn’t recommend it now, it being so close to the holidays and all. Now that it is December, the rest of the country will succumb to snowfall and the time known as 80 and Sunny's Comparison Period will begin.

December 3, 2007

It's the best when it's sunny and a bit chilly outside, like in the mid sixties. Smog doesn't have the same density in cooler weather. I'm not sure if that is a real science fact but it's a fact to some people. It's more of a truth than a fact. And truth is what you can see when it's sunny and a bit chilly like in the mid sixties and the smog is someplace else.

December 2, 2007

After seeing "I'm Not There" I was forced to reevaluate my expectations for the sunshine.

This morning the sunshine was a glass of lemonade, and by the afternoon it was a bucket of tapioca pudding.

December 1, 2007

I don't even know how to write this but it was in the fifties today. At least that was the wind temp. Positively freezing for this part of the country. The avenues are ghost towns. No one goes out. It's December now.

November 30, 2007

Rain with strong winds in the evening. The first day of seriously interesting weather we've had around here that wasn't induced by an arsonist. So I ask my fellow angelinos what there day ws like in the rain and JG tells me there's squeaky shoes everywhere and RS says rush hour traffic in the rain is the pits. I say I wish I would have saved some bread bags to wrap around my feet. The shoes may be squaeky but the socks are soaked.

November 29, 2007

You can't know how lovely the weather is in LA this time of year. That's why I have to tell you. To know it is to live it. Late late november brings these incredible dim blue-toned afternoons. The sun starts setting at noon now, who knows what will happen in December. Technically one could argue that the sun starts setting as soon as it's done rising. Just like how we all start dying from the day we are born.

And that is how 80 and Sunny likes to spread a little sunshine.

November 28, 2007

Crud. It's so late to post about the weather. I was stuck in traffic. Traffic at night in LA is as common as sunshine.

November 27, 2007

Eleven, two-seven, Oh seven. Oh seven why did you not appear in the temperature today? I read in the paper that maybe you appeared near the airport.

Why is it always the airport temperature that gets special attention? No one is really hanging outside there. I know, I know, it’s just because there’s lots of measuring equipment there. Well there is only one thing you need to measure temperature in LA, besides this site of course, and that is your heart.

I told an old professor of mine about 80 and Sunny and describing sunshine and he said it sounded a lot like Philip Glass, subtle differences. Of course I am just like Philip Glass. But the only difference I can see in the sunshine today compared to yesterday is because of the time I looked at it. It was sunnier about two hours more today than yesterday. This is the effect of comparative suniture.

November 26, 2007

The fall in Los Angeles is genuinely friendly. That is why even when it is supposedly seventy degrees you still could use a little jacket or sweater. You never know where the day may take you. This place gets four o'clock shadows at noon. Not unsual for a town known for it's three martini lunches.

November 25, 2007

SUNday's Seven Kinds of Sunny:

1) Bright

2) Imposing

3) Authoratative

4) Gentle

5) Encompasing

6) Encouraging

7) Punishing




Note: Today was actually mostly grey but the morning was sunny enough to inspire the post.

November 24, 2007

Low and lazy seventies with stretchy sunshine.

Adjusting to Los Angeles weather is like adjusting to a swedish massage. It's not hard.

November 23, 2007

Q + A with Kyle

Q: Yo! How is LA? Im heading back tonight. What did i miss besides DDL?*

A: Nothing. It's cold and grey. Dewey defeated Truman.


*Daniel Day Lewis

November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving from the land of snow and family.

Happy Birthday to Kelly K!

80 and Sunny will be back with regular updates on Saturday.

November 18, 2007

And from the great mind of Bethany:

Friday, november 16, 2007

today the city was like a giant wound wrapped in too much gauze--everything becoming part of one big ugly bandage. trees and buildings disappeared in the pus of pollution.

saturday, november 17, 2007

brrrrr. for LA, today was cold. even the manly men couldn't help but shiver in their t-shirts.

sunday, november 18, 2007

los angeles weather is on a diet, it just keeps dropping those degrees like unwanted pounds on the adkins diet. lots of steak wrapped in bacon, and laying off the watermelon.

November 15, 2007

I forgot to mention that 80 and Sunny Los Angeles is on a brief hiatus while I research Michigan weather. I can tell you that I am certain there was a fifty degree difference in the two places today.

November 14, 2007

Let's just call it like it is shall we? Eighty degrees and sunny with sunshine. The kind of sunny sun that tells you, even if no one else is, that you are doing a-ok. Mr. Happyshine is on your shoulders (at least until six after five).

November 13, 2007

Driving around with a senior citizen, who happens to be your boss, and listening to them talk about the pleasant weather is as fun as helping a senior citizen, who happens to be your boss, use a computer. All the details are read out loud and all the time.

November 12, 2007

Well weren't you splendid? You sun, showed up on time and behaved like a good child. You were seen and not heard. Just brilliant! Everybody loved you. I'm sure they will ask you back.

November 11, 2007

The fog of war.

We have names (excuses) for grayish weather in LA. You may have heard of May Gray and June Gloom but what's the deal with this place the past couple days in November? Did the coasts flip-flop? Is Seattle sneaking in? London? Where are we? In the middle of the November Nasties?

Happy Veterans Day.

November 10, 2007

Quiet on the western front.

November 9, 2007

From B:

63 and Hazy, who said LA was a one trick pony? As much as I usually hate gossip, rumor has it rain its on its way this weekend. I wonder if that will be on entertainment tonight?

November 8, 2007

It was a soft day. That's what the Irish call a misty low-cloud day. I heard it on NPR a few days ago during their coverage of the Joe Torre press conference at Dodgers Stadium and wanted to wait a few days before using it. I wasn't going to mention borrowing from the radio show but.. I dunno, you'd think it takes bright sunshine to expose truth but it's these cloudly days that encourage full disclosure.

November 7, 2007

Bright and snappy today with the temp hovering just around seventy degrees. Wardrobe options are starting to broaden. We have forgotten about the past darkness because while we know that many across the nation celebrate quaint fall days by praising crisp air and tangerine sunlight, we will have this for months and months to come. Thank you November.

November 6, 2007

It's not 80 and Sunny any more and it hasn't been for a good three or four days. It feels like it's all lost. We are spoilt.

November 5, 2007

It was so dark today even before the night came that I thought I might have missed three nights in a row of posts. Someone must have brought some Alaska in with them because the weatherman promised seventy two degrees but it felt like twenty of them ther degrees got lost in transmission (or comparison to recent Mexican vacation).

November 4, 2007

I'm finding it hard to get back into my Los Angeles weather conversation. The Yucatan Penninsula is moist and hot. That kind of weather always brings to mind images of soldiers walking through the pacific islands in helmets carrying backpacks. Stinkin'. Sweating. Sweltering. Maybe it makes people think of other things but that's what jungle heat makes me think of. I am glad Los Angeles heat is not jungle heat in November. If you look back to the August entries you'll see that it can get jungle like though.

I'm not glad that daylight savings is in full effect. Like today, it was a reasonable 70 degrees with a soft cloudy umbrella making it an inviting day for a nap. And if you did take a nap and you woke up at around five fifteen you might have just thought it was nine pm. Because that is how DST works.

October 28 - November 3, 2007

Whats better than a kept promise? Sunny weather, maybe.

Thanks Bethany and JG for your accurate and astute account of what I missed:

October 28, 2007

Today a Southeasterly wind blew the ashen remains of the fires out into the Pacific. Colors eagerly returned to their proper place, replacing the gray of haze. For the first time in several days, we were reminded of the forgotten blue of our Los Angeles sky. The day finished in hopeful golds and brilliant pinks.

October 29, 2007

Mr. Monet painted the sky today, while Walt Disney was at his side saying, “Yes, like that!” or “A little more blue over there and make that cloud a bit brighter and a tad fluffier.” Throughout the day they both took pause to admire their masterful work, and Walt would turn to Claude and say, “Perfect, simply perfect.” And Claude would smile with his eyes in agreement. I got a kink in my neck looking up in wonder all day. Beautiful.

October 30, 2007

T-shirt, jeans, a smile. Randy Newman must have penned “I Love LA” on a day just like today.

October 31, 2007

I found myself wanting to hear the sound of crunching leaves at my feet today. I breathed a bit heavier hoping for even the slightest trail of breath to curl out of my mouth. But alas, Halloween provided the appropriate conditions for the inappropriate parade of half naked girls and their sexy costumes. BOObies!

November 1, 2007

That time of year is upon us where the brisk and cloudy mornings tease us into sweaters only to find ours sweaty selves cursing at the sun by midday. No deodorant can remedy overheating in mohair.

November 2, 2007

“What was the weather like today?” –Bethany

…

“Gross.”—jG

November 3, 2007

Today every child in the greater Los Angeles area woke bright and early, not to watch Saturday morning cartoons, but to each light a smoke bomb. LA has disappeared in the haze of their prank.

October 27, 2007

Low and mid seventies. It was gray, still, and misty so the temperature drop felt suspicious after the last couple days. We saw a few drops of rain but not enough to substitute for a lawn-watering or a car wash, even by my standards. It wasn't sunny here today and it's not going to be sunny where I'm going. It's mid fall now and there's no reason to cry about it.

80 and Sunny won't have daily posts this week but I have special reporters documenting the LA weather and we'll have something spectacular like a whole week of daily weather posts all at once next Sunday.

Ocotber 26, 2007

Still hotish. We were all somewhere near a window today at that point where something cleared away and we saw our old friend the sun. It was then when we realized just how smoky things had gotten. It made it more of a contemplative Friday afternoon than usual.

October 25, 2007

Smog or smoke smog or smoke smog or smoke smog or smoke smoke or smog smoke or smog?

October 24, 2007

Ninety degrees in October is a heat that feels exactly like getting stuck behind the bus with the exposed exhaust. You suffer knowing that eventually something, whether it be your head or the pipe or the road, is going to crack open and the evening will come and the heat will break.

October 23, 2007

This is what it feels like to stand next to a city on fire. Ninety degrees, hot and still like holding your face next to the lightbulb in an Easy Bake Oven. Just checking to see if that little cake is done.

October 22, 2007

79 degrees, hot, dry and windy. The winds are against most of southern California. I live in the part of town that isn't on fire.

The Santa Anas were coming in tricky today too. The kind of winds where only the lower bushes move around where the tall trees stand on still guard. This is indeed, the weather of trouble.

October 21, 2007

I got a call from a friend in Chicago today. She said that the 80 degree weather there this late in October proves that global warming is a reality. I say that the 80 degree weather here in LA is proof that it isn't. It's national warming that is happening. we are all going to be on the same temperature after a while. It's a government conspiracy thing.

For us here it's a tricky thing, this hot sun in the fall. Looking for shade and halloween costumes is a confusing daily pastime.

October 20, 2007

Santa. Ana. Winds.

October 19, 2007

Seventy-nine degrees and an encore of summer sun. The kind of sun that put everything back in it's two dimensional place. Giving the people, and the trees, and the buildings, and the cars a bright side and a dark side. And nothing in between.

Saran wrap your pumpkins. A heat wave is coming.

October 18, 2007

It got hot today when we were walking. So says a Los Feliz resident. Proof enough that it was over 70. Gorgeous. Again. Thanks.

October 17, 2007

High sixties with fall sunshine today.

We try to convince ourselves that there are trees with leaves changing color around here. There are some good examples of fall color change. Most of 'em are just some leaves turning brownish. But what does that matter, we've got a city-block-sized pumpkin patch with a white and orange striped awning.

October 16, 2007

Be still my rouseled heart.A day with this kind of rutilant sunshine is of the highest romantic nature.

October 15, 2007

Whoa whoa whoa! Today never happened. The darkness never lifted. The scent of mothballs had no time to escape our woolen sweaters. It was barely 60 degrees and the sun was nowhere to be found. You can take a day off dear sir, but not here in SoCal.

October 13 and 14, 2007

Saturday was a pleasant post-rain day.

Hot soup weather is welcomed by about 35 percent of Angelinos. Most of them transplants. The rest of them just see no need to have a grey sky or a mild chill in the air even for a day. Heck, even for an afternoon.

(Sunday) Another thing about living in southern California is that come mid-October you can drive to any kind of weather you'd like.

October 12, 2007

69 and fair it was today.Intermitent patches of clouds all day finishing off with a puffy pink sunset.

Sometimes, even in Los Angeles, if you wait until night time to write it will rain. And when it rains you will be so happy because you might be able to find parking in Los Feliz or maybe you can turn your heater on or your TV off so you can listen to that unfamiliar sound of water gushing off unprepared roofsides and pooling up on the streetside.

October 11, 2007

LAnniversary for a special gal today. Like the staying power of a sunburn, I mean sunny day, she has lasted three years in this beasty urbania.

When asked what was it that makes her stay she replied, "I cannot answer that in words." And then she looked around for a pacific ocean or palm tree to point to and noticed her car was in a white zone. The glare of the noontime sun had blinded her parking judgement.

October 10, 2007

High seventies and sunny. Yep.

Excerpts from a notepad:

The sun shined on us like a blessing.

Her eyes crinkled up in the
sunlight the same way they did when she was smiling.

Brightness is characterized by happiness. 80 and Sunny ultimately wants to know, what does nearly daily sunshine mean to happiness? Sunshine doesn't go away if we take it for granted but happiness may be a different story.

October 9, 2007

Halloween set-ups are appearing all over this city. An elaborate graveyard featuring plastic fruits and skeletons is especially impressive. But something about shorter days and longer shadows inspires the creation of Thanksgiving countdown calendars.

October 8, 2007

Temps were higher than 80 today. I'll give this day the "groovy award" only because someone gave that award to Kelly K and I today at a travel shop and it's just too something to hold onto. Kind of like sunshine, you can't hold it in your hand, you just gotta feel it.

October 7, 2007

Too sunny to go to a flea market at high noon.
It's hell on wide open concrete shifting through old brige card sets and wicker placemats.

October 6, 2007

It's my brothers birthday. Too bad he was driving through Illinois and not here in Los Angeles enjoying a fine fall day that included sun, temps in the sensible seventies, and crickets. There aren't many bugs here. They don't hang out a lot because the seasons are too subtle to know when you are supposed to be indoors or outdoors or whatever doors exoskeletons are concerned with. So instead you have your nighttime bugs and you daytime bugs and then you have your pests like cockroaches and junkmailers. Spiders make new webs on my back porch nightly and I don't mind. Like the kind Los Angeles son, I love and shine upon all creatures great and small.

October 5, 2007

In the Koppen Climate Classification System Los Angeles is part of:

Mediterranean climates (Csa, Csb):[6] These climates usually occur on the western sides of continents between the latitudes of 30° and 45°, though on the west coast of North America, they occur in small patches as far north as 48°. These climates are in the polar front region in winter, and thus have moderate temperatures and changeable, rainy weather. Summers are hot and dry, due to the domination of the subtropical high pressure systems, except in the immediate coastal areas, where summers are milder due to the nearby presence of cold ocean currents that may bring fog but prevent rain.

Today was a solemn goldeny fall day. Classically romantic and Mediterranean.

October 4, 2007

Fully sunny for 12 hours.

Twice today I heard people say "I just love boot season."

October 3, 2007

Dear XX,
Could you ever in your wildest dreams imagine that there are forces within us that make the temperature rise? The sun beam? The wind blow? Can you believe that today was hotter than yesterday? Temperature is not linear like everything else in this crazy ol' life. We are not on an ascending or decending path to the hottest or coldest day.
I guess what I am trying to say is that what you feel one day may be drastically different than the next. And you may not be the best critic of this anyway because sometimes you can't even remember how it feels when its 108 degrees because it's been too long.
Sincerely,
80A.S.

October 2, 2007

I heard a weather report from Portland that it was cold and rainy up there in the Pacific Northwest. Rest assured that it is not here. The second day of the work week and the second day of October gave us an extra special second helping of warm smiley good-to-your-clean-socks sunshine. It may take another month but everyone will be jealous soon. Soon.

October 1, 2007

What's it like living in the land of constant sunshine and beautiful people? It's a lot like a three martini lunch, a grape flavored blow-pop, and a first view of the Grand Canyon or your prom date. And maybe a bit like walking out of a crappy job and knowing that you will be taken care of. It's like falling back into a large crowd for a trust exercise. It's knowing that as sure as the earth turns the sun will shine on LA. Reliance. It's not just in the name of a great car. It's the sun on the city of angels.

September 30, 2007

The last day of September and the last day of the 2007 season for our dear Dodgers. I blame the heat and predictable sunshine for the loss.
It's still hot here in the afternoon sun. 80 degrees to be exact. Shuffling up a shadeless mile long hill is only advisable under the strong conviction and love of a team.

September 29, 2007

My plane landed in Ontario at sunset. Just in time to see the sky turn pink over the track houses in the Inland Empire. I sang the theme song to 'Weeds' to myself and wondered what the weather was like in LA all day. I posed the question to Kelly K and she replied:

Warm, but not unpleasant. Breezy. Spent the day in the mall eating onion rings and beer.

September 28, 2007

Thanks Bethany and JG:

all the colors of LA, meshed today into gray and the sun took a break from all its usual shining while a gentle breeze managed to coax some eager leaves off their swaying branches. the change affected everything from the length of sleeves to how one takes their tea. the dwellers of this city are ready to retire their tank tops and ice cubes.

September 27, 2007

A few official days into fall and we are all still sleeveless.

September 26, 2006

Big moon. It obviously affects the weather and the last minute-ness of a weather report.
Gentle day overall.
Stay sunny.

September 25, 2007

79 Degrees and sunny today. It's really chilling off at night now. Made the hike up Elysian Park more tolerable. A giant harvest moon hovered over Dodgers Stadium before it found it's home way up in the night sky by the second inning. It promises to get more spectacular as the days get shorter but it's time to find another vantage point. Only a week left of regular season.

September 24, 2007

As the earth is now on a tilty journey into darkness at a personally estimated rate of three quarters of a degree a week, we can now enjoy the changing glorious warm sleepy light of fall. Today was a stupefying seventy nine degrees with complete sunshine. The most noticeable difference from a summer day so far is that there is less of it.

September 23, 2007

Scientific facts:

Equinox means equal night.

At the autumnal equinox (Sept. 23, 2007, 5:51 A.M. EDT), the sun appears to cross the celestial equator, from north to south; this marks the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere.

Autumn equals awesome sun light.

September 22, 2007

Conspiracy theorists predicted that a major terrorist attack was going to take place yesterday or today. They based this on some stock market predictions and activity and some other things like shape shifting and spiritual owls and whatnot. Nothing happened here, stateside, other than another rainy day in LA. Bring it. Stay inside if you are wearing flip-flops though. We wouldn't want any accidents.

September 21, 2007

Rain in a city completely unprepared for rain is the best kind. Instant roadside lakes and palm branch canoes appear like magic. Roofs all over sing out with the distinct sound of cloud droplets on terracotta. Hoods up in Los Feliz and umbrellas open in Silverlake. Neon lights see their reflection for the first time and it is really special.

September 20, 2007

Contrast and backlighting are not just photoshop functions. They are a way to judge and experience sunray intensity. Today was a day where the object in front of a person was only 7 percent visible with direct sunbacklighting. Meaning the sunshine was so bright that only silhouettes were apparent. Only 7 percent of an objects distinguishing characteristics were visible. Like the shape of a nostril or traction patterns on a wheel of an H3.

September 19, 2007

I was going to restrain myself from using too many baseball analogies for this weather project. But since a dark cloud fell on LA, both literally and baseballically, I feel that there is precious time left to write sports related weather reports. It should be justification enough that over 60 percent of my american slang dictionary is baseball terms. You cannot talk about anything in the human experience without being on or off base, or covering your bases, or hitting someone in the wheelhouse.

And who knows? Maybe the same miracle that brought our city the gray chill today, will bring us the winds of post season play!

September 18, 2007

Shorter days and longer shadows. While fall weather is exciting even here in LA, there has to be more to write about than that. If rain or winds or solar flares don't come soon it will come time for a new analysis of variations of sunshine. It's that time already I suppose. Time for a critical vocabulary about the delicate nature of sunshine. It should allow for subtleties that resemble wine talk but without the classicism. Sunshine is for everybody.

September 17, 2007

Oh autumn sun your long caressing afternoon shadows treat a gold lame sports bra well.

Seotember 15 + 16

Sunny.

September 14, 2007

The art of taking things for granted is a two year process in most relationships. All this sunshine around all the time can make a person complacent. But there are some moments that hint at change. Like the changing light and shadows in mid September. They remind us that our dear sun can be pleasant and not just present. We see it in a new way and are born again like first daters.

September 13, 2007

High seventies would be a decent estimation. Unlike the past weeks, it was dark by the time the national anthem started to play. But that didn't mean any of us forgot about all of the sweet post season encouraging sunshine that reined all day.

September 12, 2007

A glorious sunny day today. Sunbeams shining with kisses begging for forgiveness for that irrational heat wave fit last week. It's still summer as far as the daytime is concerned. But the temperature drop this evening assures us that autumn weather is on its way.

September 11, 2007

Did you know?

the doldrums:

a.	a belt of calms and light baffling winds north of the equator between the northern and southern trade winds in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

b.	the weather prevailing in this area.

September 10, 2007

Everything is back where it should be. Equipoise. Homeostasis. Holding steady. Complete system equilibrium. Total balance and assured evenness at a homey and reliable 80 and sunny.

September 8 and 9, 2007

Jason M sent me something good enough for both days:

There are days when the weather is best measured, and explained, by one's air conditioner. More specifically, by examining to what extent one is relying on one's air conditioner (and in the case of our recent heat storm, to what extent one wishes to throw one's air conditioner out the window because it is effectively useless). Anyway, while the AC in my overheated, uninsulated apartment has been operating on Hi Cool for the past few weeks, today and yesterday Low Cool was sufficient to keep me from running, screaming out of my apartment in sweaty, violent  frustration. Hallelujah, because the energy bill from these plug-in, window units is deadlier than the heat

September 7, 2007

My poet pal Bethany sends me word of LA:

Hot-headed LA has relented and we are no longer in the midst of our heated argument. My friend Julie is wearing a scarf.

September 6, 2007

79 and sunny in the daytime in LA and from my JetBlue seat 2A, 80 and 80 at night, as in 80 degrees and 80 percent humidity. Also in the forecast a 30 percent chance  I can get my guest writers to cover for me again this weekend. 75 percent guarantee that I miss the 20 percent humidity of LA already and a 100 chance of pizza. 

September 5, 2007

Sweet sweet relief. This must be what it feels like to be released alive from violent torture and interrogation, liked the kind featured in the summer blockbuster Bourne Ultimatum. The temperature was much more civilized today. At 80 degrees it still was advisable to keep all lip balms and light plastic containers away from windows.

RIP Summer.

September 4, 2007

Bethfromabove has been reading Shakespeare:
"Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines."

Weather today from Kelly K:
"101. Just like the freeway"

Thanks to my lovely pals that helped keep 80 and Sunny updated whilst I was away.

September 3, 2007

Bethany of hopefulromantic tells me this:

Mother of god, why have you foresaken us? Hot hell lord almighty. The kind of extreme weather that turns people religious if for no reason other than the fact that the churches are air conditioned. The Weather Channel says salvation is on its way, 80 and sunny on Wednesday. Amen.

September 2, 2007

And a word from guest writer Jason M:

Today was hot. Hotter than a gravedigger's ass in Texas, as they say in Mississippi. There was no need to look up in the sky because you knew exactly what was there. The god awful sun, punishing you for its own amusement before it makes its slow, autumn retreat and allows you once again to walk, think and breathe without sweating like a wild, disgusting animal.

10 pm. The sun has long gone down, and it's still so hot that people in the street are screaming. They aren't yelling words, just screaming, in what can only be explained as a primordial response to the cruel, hot, enveloping thickness of the air.

Septemeber 1, 2007

I escaped the LA heat wave to visit a friend in cool Phoenix, Arizona. I braved a breezy lighting storm on the way to Albuquerque. The big sky is a showcase for several simultanious weather patterns. Since I'm gone,I have asked my friends back in LA to send a report.

Kelly K is the only one that got back to me today:

Another weather report: two words: hot nights.

Ha! One more weather report- the title of this blog will have to change if this keeps up. 98 and sweltering.

August 31, 2007

The devil arrived in Burbank and changed the temp to 116. Too afraid to complain out of fear of heat retritbution.

August 30, 2007

Heat means business. It means sweat and blotchy T-Shirts and carrying washcloths or hand towels in public. Workers and slackers. Adults and children. Walkers and bussers. All of us bide our time, just waiting for that boastful sun to give us a break and pick on the other side of the globe for a while.

August 29, 2007

When someone who lives in Bakersfield asks you if it is always this hot here, you know it's real dang hot. Temps hovered in the 120s today. At least in the minds of many.

August 28, 2007

Amazing eighty-eight. Hippity-hot man, no joke. The sun in Los Angeles doesn't give a rats ass about responsibility to dates and seasons. It shines here like it does because it is free to be seasonless.

August 27, 2007

What was all that sentimental romantic yang-yang about grey skies and cozy end-of-summer-back-to-school cloudy weather talk for the past two days? Getting a break from the blistery flames of 90 degree heat is a lot like weekend release from a detention center or catching your boss in a compromising emotional moment. It is an view-changing yet fleeting experience. The clouds, well they can cloud your judgment. The sun came back today with such memory-erasing gusto, I could close my eyes for the next seven days and still see it.

August 26, 2007

In what almost shook the entire foundation of what 80 and Sunny is based on, the Los Angeles sky presented as a pile-up of gentle grey cottontails today. Actual rain drops fell for several consecutive minutes in the early afternoon. It was heavenly, homey, and comforting.

August 25, 2007

The signal to the end of summer came today, the last Saturday of August. What appeared as little grey yesterday came back for a repeat performance today, this time bringing a bit of a sprinkle in the northern valleys. It is good, a welcome change. It sure won't be a lasting change but for just this weekend we can pretend that we should be out gathering dry goods for the impending hibernation period. Grey days make you a creative forward-thinker like that.

August 24, 2007

The beauty of today was that it was almost nearly kind of overcast for a bit. Hints of fall and nostalgia surfaced in the .04% cloudy sky. It seemed cooler. Some people in the back to school mood sported light sweaters after 5pm. In a stable weather environment like Los Angeles, one lets the chronological date, as opposed to physical temperature, determine clothing choices. Of course in SoCal, irreverence is essential. But, with less than two weeks left to wear white accessories, the light sweaters seem a bit excessive, no?

August 23, 2007

Pleasant weather, the sunny and eighty two variety, encourages no ill will, no rebellion, no upheaval, and no motivation other than to enjoy, enjoy, and enjoy.

Margaritaville.

August 22, 2007

Lovely lower 80s today.

Guest writer in regards to the LA light:

"I arrived in LA at night so it wasn't until the next morning, when I stepped out of a small apartment on San Vicente Boulevard, that I saw this light. And it thrilled my soul. I feel lucky to live with that light...

...And the light is inspiring and energizing. Even with smog, there's something about that light that's not harsh, but bright and smooth. It fills me with the feeling that all possibilities are available. I don't know why. It's different from the light in other places..."

Master David Lynch, Catching the Big Fish

August 21, 2007

It was actually pleasant today. Hotly pleasant but it didn’t cook in the afternoon like the bun broiling afternoons of the past week. Looks like we are going to be getting a break and going back down to our normal, pleasant, and expected 80 and sunny weather. It’s much better this way. Everything seems thicker when it’s in the nineties. Traffic and air, not to mention people’s boastful hot weather attitudes dominate steamy days.

You ever notice when you’re out in the Inland Empire and you take a mention at how hot it is and people will say something like, “THIS isn’t hot, it’s only onehundredandinsertsingledigit. Last week, it was HOT.” I love when people adamantly identify with local weather. It reminds me of home sweet freezing Michigan home. You cannot just roll up and tell someone how hot their town is. Funny how this doesn’t work with Los Angeles sunshine. Will there ever come a day where someone will comment on how beautiful and sunny it is and I will defensively respond by saying, “oh THIS isn’t sunny and beautiful… you should have seen it last week…”

People just don’t get defensive about beauty. They get defensive about suffering and experiencing challenging weather. And this is the kind of human insight I am uncovering through my careful analysis of Los Angeles sunbeams.

August 20, 2007

When you open the door to step outside into the Los Angeles daylight it is exactly like looking at the end of a reel of projected film. Where the picture gets blown out into a bright light. It's the hot-as-a-devils-toilet-seat-whitewashed-out-Kodablasted-days of August.

August 19, 2007

Even those of us not going back to school still use the impending end of summer as a motivator to get out and enjoy the weather no matter how hot it gets. Los Angeles likes to test us, to see just how dedicated to nostalgia we really are. At 93 degrees and a UV index of one hundred kazillion, will these sad sacks still try to Bar-B-Q, jog, socialize, garden, and wash cars outside? You becha. The great humans-in-an-oven experiment continues.

August 18, 2007

The only thing hotter than today was the heat put on Seanez in the top of the 12th. It's getting to the point in the summer where it's becoming too hot to do stuff. Like remembering to update a weather blog while you are still in protective air conditioning. Once outside in the unforgiving heat elements, the human brain is unreliable and fickle.

August 17, 2007

Summer days with the number seven in them should have fun-loving temperatures in the SEVEN-ties. Alas, today was a rule breaker at over 90 degrees again. The heat was complimented by a sunlight so strong, rocks melted on the landscaped lawns in Hancock Park.

August 16,2007

Outside with your back to the sun your shoulder blades feel like they are the first point of contact of a bomb blast. On the front of your body, any part of skin that is touching something else covered with skin, pools up with sweat. Your eyes squint even when they look in the opposite direction of the big orange ball. Everything is refracting and reflecting and dispersing and expounding the omnipotent rays. And they are hot. The rays give off a meaningful traveling heat. A dry broiler heat and westerly wind that encourages movement from one piece of shade to another until we wind up in the ocean.

August 15, 2007

If you are alone in the Inland empire and it is 102 degrees fahrenheit, is it still hot? If you are in Riverside with another person, does it feel like 204 degrees?

August 14, 2007

Taking sunshine for granted is a native business.

It hasn't rained for months. Griffith Park is on fire again. We could use some some respit in the form of water droplets - either rain or low-lying clouds. It's so hot and bright it's hard not to be convinced that our brains are shrinking at least 2% due to dehydration and sun cookery.

August 13, 2007

Los Angeles proved today that it isn’t always predictable. It isn’t always 80 and sunny. Occasionally, like in August, this little town likes to play desert so all of the residents can pretend that they are walking through the Mojave when really it’s just another trip to Sears on Santa Monica. Just about 18 degrees hotter than usual.

August 12, 2007

Mid 80s - Hot in and out of the sun today.

The brightness of the sun is reminiscent of student film lighting. Or maybe television news anchor lighting. No matter where people are - should I say no matter where they are staged or blocked or directed - a vicious keylight blasts out the tops of their shoulders and casts undereye shadows. It's artificially dramatic and unflattering to reality.

The Los Angeles sun sets no stage for complex emotions. You can't cry here in this lighting, on this day, with this sunshine, feeling this breeze, in front of these people and those palm trees at the Long Beach airport.

August 11, 2007

Southern California Report from Central California

Not far enough away to have someone cover for me so I have decided to give a projected forcast. It was 98 degrees and seriously sunny in the Kings Canyon canyon bottom so I can only imagine that Los Angeles weather was similar, sunny, and minus 15 degrees. Lucky.

August 10, 2007

Absent. Late. Tardy.
Sometimes you are bathed in light. Othertimes you are in a covered veilof gentle glowing light. Somedays like august 10th, you are lambasted in heaty and moggy light.

August 9, 2007

Guest writer PKV:

Today: mugginess and fogginess combined to create one totalized feeling.

In a different town muggy is already tied to foggy but in LA muggy is not always tied to foggy so you need a conjunctive term like moggy.

August 8, 2007

About 80 degrees and yes, sunny today. But what you have to understand is that it is sunny in your immediate environment. To experience variance in your Los Angeles weather experience you have to look to the skyline or to the hills. Clarity and depth of field make all the difference.

The hills today were lightly visible through cheesecloth like smog. They looked like a needlepoint stitch-by-numbers craft project just waiting for the right crafter to bring the color to the forefront.

Sometimes you just have to see the possibilities. Some days you have to use less imagination. Today wasn't one of those days.

August 7, 2007

Today was a gorgeous eighty some degrees served with a smog-in-the-morning and lush haze compote and finished with a clear afternoon blue bath shooter.

A sunny day can trick you into thinking everything is going your way. Los Angeles has a stop-gap system for making you think this for too long and it involves traffic. Sometimes its really congested and sometimes people just drive the wrong way down a street.

Similar to this psychological stop-gap, Los Angeles is known for what we in the weather world call inversions. An inversion is a layer of warm air in the atmosphere that prevents the rise of cooling air and traps pollutants beneath it. So all this glorified warm weather is actually just trapped pollutants. If I weren't writing a weather blog I would get crackin' on an in depth celebrity metaphor and publish it right here scientology.

God bless.

August 6, 2007

Today 80 and Sunny takes some science quotes from David Carle’s book, “Introduction to Air in California” 2006, Univeristy of California Press

“Blue is scattered twice as effectively as green light and about four times more than red light. Violet is actually scattered the most, but our eyes are not very sensitive to that range; we perceive blue better.”

How could anyone prove that you don’t see a purple sky? You could say you are more sensitive to violets and you were just born that way.

“…Without atmospheric gases and their abilities to scatter sunlight, our sky would be as black as outer space[he cannot be talking about Los Angeles], where light passes through but is not made visible by encounters with air molecules… Deep blue skies are dry and clean, free of smoke, dust, and haze. Water vapor and haze particles turn the sky whitish or gray because they scatter more light across the whole range of wavelengths…”

Which is why when we talk about the blue skies of Los Angeles we mean Dodger blue. It’s a scattered, fractal, gaseous version of deep mountain blue and it compliments our perfect 80 degree weather like the kind we had again today.

August 5, 2007

Take the center of the flash on a flash bulb and throw it at a white wall. Blow out the contrast on your user-friendly-iphoto. Watch a movie in the mid-day and then step outside. Pull the curtains back on a hungover Sunday morning. Get smacked upside the head. Times that all by a hundred, add 80 degrees and about nine and a half hours and you have the Los Angeles summer sun today.

August 4, 2007

Some cloud puffs, tiny airy puffs, appeared in the mid-afternoon today. They were just enough to cut the sun a like a splash of water in a glass of scotch. Oh it was still sunny mind you but, the sky was mostly clear after 2pm. Clear and sunny enough to inspire a green-screen like experiment with the neighbors TV antennae - because it looked just so good perched high up against the crisp blueness of this fine Saturday atmosphere.

August 3, 2007

Today’s weather confirmed that August means get up and getcher fitness walking in before five am. It means don’t expect your Asiatic lilies to open up by dinner time. It was the kind of dry curling-up-brown-edged heat with the blazingly blazing sun that melts glaciers, certain plastics, and pancake make-up. Grab your sunshields, it’s only the third of the month.

August 2, 2007

Days like today make questions like, "Do you want that toasted?" seem like an insult.
Isn't everything already toasted? Take your time carving that avocado dear sandwich artist, there is a back-up on the 210.

August 1, 2007

A new month, a same sun.

Sometimes the sun through a car window is so hot you feel like your skin is bruising.

Byproducts of the sun on a 80-plus-degree day:

Road Vapors: The illusion of steam coming up from paved road areas. Visible after 11am and often mistaken for spirits of the undead after 4:30pm.

Solar Flare: Mostly seen on rear windows of BMW X5s where the window meets the wiper. The uninterrupted reflection of the sun on the metal part of the wiper apparatus creates a blinding perma-flash flare that is visible from up to fourty car-lengths behind. The flare should be avoided because it causes permanent sight damage.

July 31

A hotish day filled with the grey haze typically associated with sleep debt and jetlag. The only things cutting through the carbon monoxide were the amateur flashbulbs of sportsfans trying to freeze history in Dodgers stadium.

July 30

Almost home.

Guest writer Bethany T:

Dare I say, it's lovely? LA is out in her Sunday's best on a Monday. Lovely puffs of white clouds adorn her cerulean gown. Hollywood has turned its wind machines on low and the palm trees are flirting with the sky. Hurry home, LA clearly misses you.

July 30

Almost home.

Guest writer Bethany T:

Dare I say, it's lovely? LA is out in her Sunday's best on a Monday. Lovely puffs of white clouds adorn her cerulean gown. Hollywood has turned its wind machines on low and the palm trees are flirting with the sky. Hurry home, LA clearly misses you.

July 29

Guest Writer J.G. Francis

Dear 80 and Sunny,

Hungarian pigeons are hot tubbing in warm grocery store gutters.
Behind cafe window panes, frantic flies try desperately to Houdini
themselves free, their unsuccessful brethren writhing below. Bermuda
grass burns. Fallen oranges rot. It is a beautiful 83 degrees in Los
Angeles today, sunny, with a nice Northern breeze.

Tomorrow, your welcome home will most likely be the same.

Sincerely,
J.G.

And Kelly K writes:

Sweat beads on the back of my neck like the condensation on my beer glass. weather like this is an excuse to get drunk under the sun.

July 28

Guest Writer Kelly K:

80 and sunny. The palm trees are swaying in the breeze. Its what people back east imagine when they think of hollywood.

And Jamie Masters:

Hot. But perfect Saturday weather. Breeze is just cool enough to enjoy sticking your arm out the window while driving.

July 27

Guest writers!!

Bethfromabove

Today: hot oven. No clouds. No moisture. Even palm trees look dead.
Oh and a million tons of car exhaust with no place to go

Bethany:
today l.a. fucked with my emotions. for one reason or another, it teased me like a hot latin lover whispering promises of cool breezes and soft cloud covers. but no, like the days before and surely the days after, it started with a slow swaying of the hips and ended with the blasting of shiny brass trumpets. I'm feeling hot! hot! hot!

July 26

Guest Writer Jamie Super Momma M:
Sassy. Brazen. Daring me to lose my shit while driving around town with no A/C. Actually, the weather is downright bitchy today- the Jr Highschool variety (harmless but fucking obnoxious). So, for Thursday O7-26-O7. the weather in LA is like spending the day with a hot bitchy 8th grader.

July 25

At Seven-Eleven they have a glass showcase that displays meat wieners doing the lumberjack roll on metal logs. They call them Big Bites and Super Big Bites and they swell up and turn brownish red and roll, roll, roll all day long under the heat lamp. They bead up just a little bit with sweat, not enough to relieve the internal pressure, just enough to make them look extra-unattractive. There is no way for them to hide from onlookers or the heat and yet they continue to roll. The average seven-eleven patron doesn't know when the hot dog's shelf life is up. Neither do the Big Bites.

It was one hundred thousand degrees today. And that, the above hot-dogged description, is what it feels like.

July 24

Feast of St Christina the Astonishing

...she would jump into a burning furnace until she could no longer handle it, or into the river in the coldest weather and stay for weeks. Once she was even said to have gotten into a mill-race and been carried under the wheel. She would pray while balancing on a hurdle or curled up in a ball on the ground. In a church at a placed called Wellen, she climbed into the large font and sat in the water. Of course, many thought that she was insane.

*it was very, very hot today.

July 23

It happened while most of us were sleeping. Rain. I saw a bit of the temporary staining on my sidewalk early this morning but it was gone before I could look twice. Unbelievable. Who did the rain dance?

So by the afternoon everything went back to the prehistoric hotness of a proper Los Angeles summer Monday. Back to the way we were before we remembered rain. Usually we all crowd in together to wait to cross the street with our dry eyeballs and unmanageable B.O.

July 22

A surprise rainbow falling on dusk tonight. It was visible on the 110 near downtown. We haven’t seen rain since January so who knows where it came from. I counted forty tiny rain drops on my windshield. Lots of funky fast moving cloud patterns all day. Like the past two days, visibility was low. But today was special because of the moving clouds. By the time the rainbow showed up the sky was bubblicious and everything looked hypercolor. For a brief moment I even thought the Staples Center was green.

July 21

Hot like crossed buns today. Smoggy with a kind of ecstatic sadness that makes one think how there ain't no sunshine when he's gone. And by he I mean the mountain range I can't see.

July 20

(guest writer Bethany Toews) Today the walk up Elysian Park Avenue felt good, I'd say 81, possibly, 81.5 (but it's up a hill). The LA sklyline was wrapped in a light layer of gauze. The day ended with it's share of pink. I love LA. We Love it. The Dodgers lost. (No Randy Newman)

July 19

Mid-seventies with a mid-eighties heat index in the sun. Perfect day for sailing to Catalina. It was a day where even the pelicans looked bronzed and joyful. Waterfowl joy index: 73. Dolphins in glistening water visibility index: 90

July 18

That’s right. 80 and sunny today. The sun was so bright that it didn’t even go away when we closed our eyes. It was so clear and cutting that a mere human eyelid was nothing more than a meager gathering of atmospheric molecules to the sun. And we all know how much the sun respects the Ozone. This is the kind of sun we will call eyeballtanable.

July 17

The Goodyear blimp was spotted over Redondo Beach today. The blimp, known for it’s no-nonsense steel-grey color and yellow lettering, looked like a repaired swatch of a screen door up there. Fog, cloud, grey, haze, smog, screen, film, brume – call it 79 and partly cloudy. Partly cloudy in Los Angeles is not like partly cloudy in Kansas or Iowa. Partly cloudy means that part of the day is going to be cloudy, not part of the sky. There are no clouds for the sun to peek through once in a while throughout the day, there is only muck and then light in the afternoon. But the light almost always comes.

July 16

It started off dull grey today but there was no rest for air conditioners. By the afternoon the sun came back to remind us all where we really are, under her thumb. Baking in her 79 degree rays. Framed (or trapped) by palm trees and dirty buildings. Giving over our precious energy life force to UVA/UVB light.

The straightaway roads like Brand Blvd and First Street offer great views of the distinct tonality of our great sunny city. Heat from the grimy streets and sidewalks creates a grey tone around the high-rises and as you look up to the wide open sky there is a flawless gradation from white-grey to grey to grey-blue to blue. A perfect mirror of the morning to afternoon transition. Such is nature’s light on industry.

July 15

90s again. Gleaming robust Sunday church-going sunshine. The kind that makes rooftop antennas look like runway lights and the road in front of you look like water. I counted seven people on seven different street corners shielding their eyes from the sun even though they had sunglasses on. They’d rather walk in the sunshine than live in the shade. Amen.

July 14

Ripped off from party convo last night:

“You ever stick your head in a toaster oven to check if your pizza is done? That’s what it’s like outside.” “We are all cherry pop-tarts in a giant toaster.”

287400

July 13

Hot. 90 plus degrees. When it is this hot and muggy outside there is no difference between looking through your dirty dusty windshield and looking out your own eyeballs.

July 12

Almost 85 degrees today. I had the pleasure of driving around a guest from Oaklahoma City for most of the day. “Now THAT’S a blue sky,” he said. How many ways can you say a sky is blue? Blue is blue, right? We need a way to describe color presence in atmospheric (sky) terms.

I propose using a modified version of the 4 C’s for diamonds: Color, Crispy-ness, Clairty, and Cloud weight.

Today’s reading:

Color: Tweener of Cerulean and Dodger Blue.

Crispy-ness: High, polarized lenses necessary.

Clarity: #1SPV (sharp with Some Puffy clouds Visible).

Cloud weight: (judged in terms of cotton products with q-tips being very heavy, quilting filler/batting somewhere in the middle, and cotton balls being very light) today was about .25 cotton ball.

July 11

79 degrees and clear skies today. Bluer than billy’s ocean. From the window near a corner cubicle at the Glendale Public Library I developed the following technique:

The best way to judge how blue the sky really is, is to look for a nice leafy tree and find the edges of a top shelf leaf cluster (greener the better) and keep that point in mind. Don’t look at it too hard just yet, just know the spot to look at. Rub your hands together like Mister Miyagi in the karate kid until they get warm. Then cup your hands over your eyes and leave them there for fifteen or twenty seconds. Then take your hands away and look at the point you picked. Whoa. Clarity that will cut through your retina. Believe that.

July 10

It was in the high seventies most of the day. Not uncomfortably hot but there was a touch of humidity that made outdoor coffee consumption dangerous for the elderly and those wearing synthetic fabrics. The mostly cloudy part of the forecast was mostly accurate. The so called clouds presented as a grey haze. Mixed with the fog layer it was hard to distinguish where the clouds started and the carbon dioxide began. But the grey stuff broke into fluffy cumulus clusters just in time to let the sun blind rush hour motorists with long shadows and streaks of glaring light. A fine Tuesday in LA.

The Beginning

I was inspired to start a weather description project after a recent stint in my great homeland of the Midwest. In Michigan a day without talking about the weather is a day where your lazy ass probably didn’t get out of bed to interact with the rest of humanity.

People in Los Angeles are not all of the bad things the world thinks but they are indeed, weather dumb. Imagine what your life would be like if you didn’t have to scrape ice off your windshield or wait for your car to warm up or suffer alone sitting parked under a highway overpass to wait out a deadly hail storm or crouched in a basement to avoid getting torn away from your newborn baby or German Shepard by a tornado? Weather isn’t a concern here and I feel my descriptive abilities are suffering because of it.

So the purpose of 80 and Sunny is to give a daily description of the weather in the land of little rain. Hopefully it will inspire people to appreciate the god given sunshine. Hopefully it will give the public the tools and techniques needed to differentiate the hundred kinds of sun we experience. Hopefully I will become a better writer.

The project will last one year starting tomorrow on my birthday. I’m just one of those people that enjoys giving more than receiving (lie).

Forecast for Los Angeles tomorrow? Go figure, 76 and mostly cloudy.