There is snow still even on the south side of Mt Baldy 

In honor of a thread on a messageboard and the emo journalcomic guy I decided to chronicle yesterday in web comic form... how exciting! (Don't worry, its a one time event) 

Farwell to Spring. 

big Canyon Live Oaks... but on a ridge, not a canyon. 

the furthest south known population of Oregon Oak. this far south, it's just a shrub. 

wildflowers near Mt McDill 

Yucca stalk and bouquet reservoir 

Slender Mariposa Lily 

Rubio Canyon, site of many landslides 

Mt Baden Powell as of last week.. still quite a bit of snow in places! The warm weather will melt it off fast, now. 

Flannel Bush 

Big Rock Creek on the desert side of the mountains also beneifitted from the late rains. 

Last Sunday night and Monday morning a rare late may storm moved into the area, bringing anywhere between .8 inches of rain in LA to 2.5 inches in parts of Malibu. This storm set records for late season rainfall... it also caused the creek behind my office, which was going dry for the summer, to fill with water again. The soils in the mountains got a good soaking from this overnight storm, which should keep the flowers blooming for a while longer. It also brought the yearly rainfall in LA within an inch or two of 'average' - which is a quite normal amount of rain to receive. This year, most of the rain fell in fall and spring and the winter was rather dry. 

this is Granite Gate. Many decades ago, there was a railroad that went right up the steep south face of Mt Lowe (near Mt Wilson). The train is gone now but the old grade remains, along with this scenic roadcut. 

'Dudleya cymosa' - a neat, relatively uncommon native succulent. 

This is a Ringneck snake.. a rather rare species of small, non-venomous snake. In addition to the bright red ring around its neck, its underside is also vibrant red. I found it hanging out in a small seep.. good habitat for a snake whos preferred prey includes amphibians such as salamanders and frogs. 

Well, yesterday the clouds fizzled, but today they didn't. There were widespread afternoon thunderstorms in the deserts and high mountains, not much rain but plenty of lightning and wind. Unfortunately I wasn't in the high country but I did get some good views of the storms from the Santa Clarita area. Although Pasadena stayed rather cool, it was hot and muggy in Santa Clarita, and felt like the east coast. 

The grass is still green above Castaic 

Mariposa Lily 

For the first time this year, a summer thunderstorm tried to grow.. however, it failed miserably. It got a bit taller than this but then it evaporated, I guess the air was too dry