Dan's Outside

I go, I see, I do, I walk, I think, I like…

California’s ARkStorm

WeatherUnderground has a great post about ARkStorm, the historical (and expected at some future point) periodic “biblical” floods that can afflict California once every few hundred years when the “atmospheric river” of tropical moisture lines up just right… or wrong. I had previously heard of the 1862 even in historic reports that I have read in sources that were not specifically focused on weather or climatology, but now it sounds like climatologists are understanding the process more clearly. Rather than attempting a layman’s description of my own, I suggest taking a look at the link.

January 30, 2011 Posted by | Environment, History | Comments Off on California’s ARkStorm

Yosemite Valley Railroad – A Piece of History Lives

Almost since I’ve lived in California I remember wondering about the railroad bed that follows the Merced River along the canyon bottom approach to El Portal and Yosemite Valley.

Thanks to Andy Frazer (see here also) I came across the web site describing the restoration of the observation car from the train that travelled between Merced and El Portal (at the Yosemite border) for something like 40 years during the first half of the last century.

January 26, 2008 Posted by | Commentary, History | Comments Off on Yosemite Valley Railroad – A Piece of History Lives