SoCal Myths: The Great Dodger in the Sky

Storm clouds over Mt. San Jacinto, June 3, 2009. Photos by Rich Seeley




Rain is so rare at this time of year that records were broken in Palmdale, Sandberg and Camarillo, where there had been zero precipitation on June 3 in all the years that the National Weather Service had been keeping records, the Oxnard office reported. -- from today's Los Angeles Times.

Grandma Saveraid lured my mother to Los Angeles at the end of World War II by writing her letters claiming "it only rains here at night."

My mother was living in Nebraska at the time and this sounded too good to be true.

And like everything else that sounds too good to be true, it was.

Eventually, my mother, who spent most of the rest of her life in Southern California, found out that it does occasionally rain here during the day.

But it mostly rains during just two months -- February and March -- all year. Dodger baseball games are rarely rained out because it almost never rains here during baseball season -- April through October.

So while Grandma's "it only rains here at night" was a bit of a stretch, it is true that there are very few rainy days in Southern California.



The fact that California has a unique climate when compared to the rest of the country and much of the world, causes meteorologists based back East to make strange statements on national television.

Sometime in September, when the fire season begins here, a guy on the Atlanta-based Weather Channel will say: "It's been five months since they've had any measurable rain in the Los Angeles area and by now they desperately need it in the fire-prone foothills."

Of course, anybody who had lived here for more than a year or two knows that it ain't going to rain in September. Except for a few little drizzles it isn't likely to rain here until February, if then.

Except right now because the high and low pressure areas are out of kilter off the Pacific Coast, we are getting freaky weather this June.

Yesterday and last night it actually did rain in Southern California.

But it still didn't rain out the Dodgers home game, which they won thanks to a great pitching performance by Chad Billingsley, and the benevolence of a local deity known as The Great Dodger in the Sky.

The Great Dodger in the Sky is supposed to protect us against rain outs. Among the other deities this is called nice work if you can get it.