In Southern California, we're used to driving in time-bending times, and seeing estimated arrival times get longer rather than shorter as traffic jams increase. So I was resigned, but not surprised, when my 66-mile trip from Ventura to Elysian Park lengthened from 86 minutes to 100 minutes on Thursday afternoon.
What I didn't expect was hail. On the first day of August, around 2:25 p.m., after driving in nearly 100-degree weather in the San Fernando Valley.
Now you know why I have seven sweatshirts and jackets in the car. At all times.
The strangest thing is that my trip started with temperatures around 70 degrees in Ventura, where spring and much of summer have been cool and cloudy. We had some beautiful blue-sky days in late July with temperatures around 80 degrees, but on Thursday the clouds were again present for much of the day.
When I went for my walk that morning, the temperature was around 15°C, cool enough to wear a sweatshirt. But by 12:45 p.m., when I headed into Los Angeles, it was about 21°C. I expected it to be about 5°C warmer, so I put on shorts and a tank top to walk through Elysian Park while writing an article.
As expected, as I climbed Conejo Pass on Highway 101 heading east, the temperature rose rapidly.
I couldn't say this inside My car, of course, thanks to the air conditioning, but my temperature sensor started climbing into the 80s in Thousand Oaks and by the time I drove through Tarzana, the gauge was reading 99 degrees, just 45 miles from where I had started.
I was expecting the temperature to stay in the 90s as I headed east, but instead the skies clouded over and the temperature began to drop, down to the low 80s.
And around 2:25 p.m., as I drove past Forest Lawn Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills on Highway 134, little white balls started hitting my windshield. They were smaller than the tiniest peas, but hard enough to make a staccato sound as they hit my windshield and melted into tiny water droplets.
When I arrived at the West Loop trailhead in Elysian Park 20 minutes later, the sky was covered in scattered clouds, so I grabbed my sweatshirt, making sure, of course, that the sun would rise shortly after.
The trip home around 5:30 pm was predictably slow but relatively uneventful due to the weather.
Meanwhile, a prolonged heat wave is sweeping through inland areas of the state. The one day of strange weather I experienced is not indicative of a broader trend (the National Weather Service noted a “seemingly endless heat wave” in July), but it is an example of the microclimates we experience in Southern California. There can be triple-digit temperatures in one place and momentary hail in another.
One of the nicest things about driving west, though, is that you get a front-row seat to some spectacular sunsets. There were still clouds, but they were so faint that they had an iridescent glow like spun sugar.
And the sunset (the clouds turned a deep salmon-pink and plum) did not disappoint.
