Back when I was a lad, I recall very bad pollution, hanging like a dismal reminder of our mortality, over the city every day. The outpouring of burned fossil fuel residues, and the photochemical reaction, created a brown pall that hung overhead, blocking out the Sun, and sometimes even the HOLLYWOOD sign.
If you could find a hotel with a balcony in those days, you could step outside your room—take a deep breath—and chip a tooth on some of the thicker stuff… Of course that was good for a pragmatist like me—I don’t trust air that I can’t see.
Now, of course, that has all changed. Oh sure, there are still “smoggy” days, and who doesn’t like the crystal clear skies after the all-too-rare rain? But the extremely strict emission control law for vehicles has resulted in a significant cleanup. The dirty air going into the car is coming out the tailpipe cleaner, with fewer contaminants than when it went in, catalyzed by the pollution control components into harmless substances. In effect by driving our cars we’re not polluting, but rather cleaning the atmosphere. What an incredible turnaround!
Oh sure, it gets a little warmer during the day and a little colder during the night, but by and large the weather is virtually unchanging all year long. And what does the typical weather reporter do? The handsome, well-proportioned men spend a great deal of time either out of doors enhancing their tans, or indoors getting them sprayed-on; their female counterparts must spend all their off-time in the gym developing well-proportioned, idealized, busty and taut bodies, with any leftover time spent whitening their teeth.
Collectively, then, they must travel en mass to the local comedy clubs to pick up a clever, witty banter to use when they’re on the air. Study tedious old meteorological reports you say? Why bother? The weather report is simply going to be “Remember yesterday?
It’s gonna be just like that!” Then they’ll turn to “Biff” the sports guy and say, “Tell us all about those Dodgers, Angels, Lakers, and Clippers…etc… Yep, easiest job in the world… Be funny and look good!
Talking to Locals
One reporter, testing a new camera, decided to go out and inquire of some locals what they thought of Los Angeles’ weather. His video was not too surprising. You know how many people out of the seven he filmed hate LA? Zero…
Contrast that with this second video hosted by Jimmy Kimmel in mid-January, 2013, where various news commentators address the issue of temperatures dropping below 55° F. Even a good 20° above the freezing point the news commentators freely bandy about the terms arctic chill, “cold, cold, cold”, freezing weather, and Arctic Blast… And, of course, Jimmy Kimmel just loves it as people overreact to the slightly cooler weather.
Looking Around
If you want to have a look around the city, start with this webcam on Hollywood Blvd. Then take a peek at Marina del Rey (the place where everyone ties up their boats). Both of these cams let you have some control in terms of zooming, and then panning/tilting your way around the zoomed image.
And, of course, you’ll probably want to take a look at the amusement park, watching the Ferris Wheel and Roller Coaster at Santa Monica Beach. To speed your way through viewing, there is the Venice Beach cam that records a continuous hour that you can run forwards or back, and then follow its automatic position changes in that time period. As usual you can zoom, pan, and tilt within each view.
Much Better Now
There was a period of time in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, the when the pollution got so bad that you couldn’t read the Hollywood sign from downtown. In point of fact people squinted through the hideous brown smog in order to be able to navigate the streets of downtown.
It is never cloaked anymore; the sky spends a lot of time being brilliant blue nowadays. It was a constant joke in the sixties and seventies on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson “Nice weather in LA this morning; I think I saw the Hollywood sign today!” It even formed a small part of the introduction to a classic DRAGNET parody Johnny performed with Dragnet star Jack Webb.
Weather Watch
If you want to know what the day has in store for your weather-wise, you can always log onto ABCOTVS.com and pick up a quick synopsis. They’re happy to supply you with little video tidbits and weather reports.
Just want the fast and dirty facts? Temperature, rising or setting times for the Sun, the humidity, wind direction & speed, or whether it’s likely to rain over the course of the day can all be had at LATimes.com.
If, on the other hand, you want more detail, such as historical data, telling you what happened yesterday, hourly reports telling you about the near future, a complete seven day forecast, or even predictions showing the 14-day trend, log onto theweathernetwork.com.
Similarly, weather.com provides radar images, a video weather forecast, and special notes for upcoming holidays, frost warnings, regional forecasts, and travel weather forecasts.
Of course if you’re worried about hazardous weather conditions, you may as well go to the experts; the ones that all your local radio and television stations are going to call. The National Weather Service is the clearinghouse for all weather information. You’re going to get a lot more than just the rain forecast. The NWS will tell you about brush fires, floods, mudslides, road washouts, or even if there is a mid-Pacific subsidence that could send a tsunami our way.
So don’t worry. LA weather is 95% great, pleasant, consistent, and only 4.5% annoying, and only 0.5% scary, or terrifying. So, 19 times out of 20 you’re going to have a great day! There aren’t many places they can say that.