What If they Give A 2.9 Earthquake, And Nobody Came?

Yes .. there was an earthquake yesterday afternoon.

At 7 minutes before 5 … it was magnitude 2.9.

The episode was just off of Trancas Beach … about a mile offshore. 

At almost 7 miles deep … it was not widely felt. 

Only about 30 people in western LA County reported feeling it … on the USGS Did You Feel It page.

Storm At Our Doorstep: One Inch Likely

A very strong jet stream continues to blow over Southern California … with another quick and intense storm bearing down on us.

This one will hit tonight … and it will be cold.

The buildup in rain will start this afternoon …and peak at around 7:30 or so.

Again … strong winds and driving rain are likely for a half hour or so.

But just exactly when is still a question … but it will pass thru quickly. 

Strong southerly winds will also arrive with this system … once again we may get wind gusts off the ocean at up to 45 mph … up to 65 miles per hour up on the mountain ridges. 

The rain should start at about 4 this afternoon … light to moderate rain late this afternoon.

The impulse will drive through the area tonight … 

Tonight after 8 … there is a 90 percent chance of another  vigorous frontal passage.

Like yesterday… there should be a 15 to 30 minute burst of heavy rain and wind right along with the front.

Rainfall rates will mostly be in the half inch per hour range … but along the mountains we could see rates approaching one inch per hour.  Rainfall totals from late this afternoon to sunrise tomorrow Wednesday will likely be around one inch.

This is a much colder system and snow levels are expected to drop to around 3000 feet by dawn tomorrow.

It will be below 50 degrees in Malibu tonight…. 39 in the mountains above Malibu. 

In the ocean … a high surf advisory continues. 

Surf of 6 to 10 feet is expected on west facing exposures … like free Zuma.

High tide … 7.4 feet … is at 8:42 this morning.

Tomorrow morning will break with a mostly sunny .. cold and windy day … 

Highs near 56.

But tomorrow night .. smoother small rainy system is blowing in. 

Maybe a quarter inch,

Sunny Friday and Saturday.

But the computer models are all over the place for the next big storm … which looks to arrive Monday or Tuesday. 

We cloud get a lot more rain and cold winds from that one. 

Monday;s Storm Unfolded Exactly As Forecast, Except It Was 5 Hours Early

Yesterday’s rain squall developed exactly as the NWS predicted … except it blew in five hours earlier than predicted.

Yesterday at 11 … rain was falling at the rate of one inch per hour in Malibu … and winds were gusting up to 50 miles per hour.

Total rainfall amounts were robust … more than 2 inches in the mountains west of Malibu .. almost 4 inches near Topanga.

The city of Malibu reports that its Public Works crews pre-staged heavy equipment around the city … and double checked storm drains and other critical infrastructure ahead of the storm. 

Topanga Canyon Blvd hads remained closed 

Multiple crews were working 12-hour shifts throughout. 

Heavy rain fell in Los Angeles.

Seven cars were stalled by high water on Olympic Boulevard west of Bundy.

The Fairfax District got hit hard… street flooding.

Along the coast … 1.7 inches fell at Trancas … 2.4 inches at Pepperdine. 

Storm totals, last 36 hours:

Boney Mtn – 1.84

Leo Carrillo Beach – 1.17 inches

Upper Decker Cyn – 2.00

KBUU Trancas – 1.71

Pepperdine – 2.41

Carbon Beach – 2.21

Big Rock – 2.16

Upper las Flores – 2.82

Malibu Cyn Tapia – 2.78

UCLA Stunt Rd – 2.70

Topanga Fire Sta 69 – 2.70

Agoura Hills –  2.69

Pepperdine Hosting Santa Barbara Rained Out

One other storm note .. today’s scheduled baseball game … Pepperdine hosting Santa Barbara … is washed out.

Mountain Lions Spotted Again Along Zuma Canyon

More mentions on the Internet … and pictures of two mountain lions hanging out in the backyards of Zuma’s Canyon.

It looks like a mother and her cub.

Fair warning … these pumas will take dogs or cast out of yards. 

City Council To Hear Cuthbert Mansion Appeal Tomorrow Afternoon

The Malibu city Council has a special one item agenda for tomorrow night.

This will be an appeal of a Planning Commission approval for a very large house … on Cuthbert Avenue in Malibu Park… just north of Malibu High School’s baseball field. 

A neighbor … Charlotte Frieze Jones … and others say the house is wildly out of character with the neighborhood.

This is a house that burned in the Woolsey Fire eight years ago .

The applicants asked for an over the counter rebuilding permit for a replacement home  … but also applied for a permit to nearly double the house size. 

The Coastal commission said that was a no no.

So the applicants had to start over … filed a request for a 39 hundred square foot replacement house … and filed a simultaneous request for a 46 hundred square foot foot addition.

It;’s a big lot … and the city staff says the proposed giant mansion is allowed under city rules. 

The council will decide on that at a special meeting.  … at 2 o’clock tomorrow afternoon at City Hall.

Planning Commission To Decide On House That Would Block View Of Ocean From PCH

The planning commission meets tonight… And will consider again that proposal for a house that will partially block view from Pacific Coast Highway … on the hillside near Malibu seafood.

Developer Richard Weintraub has tried to make people happy by chopping off the guest house and lowering the main foundation of the house.

But it would still sit between Pacific Coast Highway and the Bluewater ocean views … the Majestic Vista that people see as they go down the hill from Puerco Canyon towards Point Dume. 

That meeting is at 6:30 tonight at City Hall.

SCE Making Big Bucks In Altadena And Malibu: $70 Million Tax Free Profit For Undergrounding Lines

Southern California Edison is planning to underground most of its overhead power lines in Malibu. 

In the fire-ravaged community of Altadena … same thing. 

SCE will have its systemwide ratepayers bear the cost of undergrouding the lines. 

Altadena residents demanded that.

But now … those same activists are furious that they will hew to pay 30 or 40 thosduand dollars to bring the underground wires from the street to their homes.

Edison is also finding opposition to digging trenches on Altadena streets … because of the trees that have roots undertake pavement. 

The Los Angeles Times reports that SCE is trying to find government or charity funding to help homeowners pay to connect to the buried lines. 

And the power company will allow owners to keep their overhead connections until financial help is available.

This little controversy in Altadena is shining a light on just how much the power company will profit … make money … on the under grounding projects both there and in Malibu.

As KBUU has been reporting … SDCE makes a guaranteed profit of 10 percent on every dollar it spends putting it’s lines underground. 

At six million dollars per mile of underground line … that adds up very quickly.

In a little noticed announcement last April … Edison said it would spend as much as $925 million to underground and rebuild its grid in Altadena and Malibu.

That amount will earn Edison and its shareholders more than $70 million in profit before taxes.

This taxes will also be paid for by ratepayers … with the 70 million dollars going straight to the company’s shareholders. 

In western Malibu … Edison has not underground its system .. to make it more protected against wildfires.

Instead … Edison installed thicker poles and new overhead cables that are covered with insulation. 

The insulated overhead lines may still be ugly .. and the jury is still out over how effective they are.

But they are a lot cheaper … than undergronding.

Which means … SCE makes a lot less money.

This article is based on news reporting in the Los Angeles Times

Big Court Case Over Rooftop Solar Rates Nears

A major court decision over rooftop solar panels in California is coming at some point this year from the courts.

The issue is NEM-3 … the controversial change in solar energy payments issued by the California Public Utilities Commission.

NEM 3 modified NEM 2 ,,, and slashed the amount of credits given by power companies to people who sell their surplus electric power back to the power distribution companies … like SCE.

NEM-2 was very gernous to home sola operators.

NEM-3 is not.

NEM-3 practicaliy killed California’s once robust home solar installation industry.

Unde rth previous rule … NEM 2 … rooftop solar was sold to utilities at the retail rate of electricity.

NEM 3 substituted that with something called the “actual avoided cost,” … the amount that the utilities actually had to shell out for power coming from big powrerplants. which is lower. 

That is a big cut.

Reducing the rate of compensation to home solar undercuts the incentive for potential customers to put solar on their roofs because it will take longer to recoup the tens of thousands of dollars customers typically spend to install the systems.

The state’s court of appeals decision may come down within the next couple of months. But if the court of appeals wishes to hear oral arguments, the ruling will be issued later in the year.

In a new memorandum of understanding, California and the U.K. — which are both still pursuing net zero emissions goals — pledge to collaborate on clean energy technologies like offshore wind, at a time when Trump takes every chance to rail against windmills.

President Donald Trump on Monday slammed a new clean energy agreement between California and the United Kingdom, deriding Gov. Gavin Newsom and warning British leaders against partnering with the Democratic governor.

“The U.K.’s got enough trouble without getting involved with Gavin Newscum,” Trump said in a brief interview with POLITICO, using his derogatory nickname for Newsom. “Gavin is a loser. Everything he’s touched turns to garbage. His state has gone to hell, and his environmental work is a disaster.”

Trump added that it was “inappropriate” for Newsom to strike such agreements and “inappropriate for them to be dealing with him.