From a showery, twilight run in the Simi Hills.

Turtle Rock at Sage Ranch Park in the Simi Hills. From a run on January 26, 2007.

It was nice to start a run in the rain and see a few mud puddles along the way! Southern California has had so little rain the last several months that any rain is something to celebrate. Since the start of the water year on July 1, the official weather station for Los Angeles at USC has recorded only 1.48 inches of rain. This is more than 5 inches below normal for the date, and depending on the rain received the next three days, the July 1 to January 31 rainfall total could be the 5th driest since recordkeeping began in 1877. (Downtown Los Angeles recorded only 0.02 inch over the three days, and according to a NWS statement issued February 1, July 1 to January 31 was the 5th driest on record.)

Unless you are particularly fond of mud, Rocky Peak Road is usually a good choice for a run if it's raining, or has rained recently. Perched on a ridge on the border between Los Angeles and Ventura counties in Rocky Peak Park, its sandy soils are generally well drained. Except for a few short sections of road, mud isn't too much of an issue unless you run beyond "fossil point," the high point of the road at about mile 4.8. Here there is an outcrop of fossil scallop shells.

Related posts: San Fernando Valley from Rocky Peak, Chumash-Las Llajas Loop, Sunset Snow Shower

View of rock formations along the escarpment between Boney Mountain and Sandstone Peak from the Yerba Buena segment of the Santa Monica Mountains Backbone Trail.

Related post: Balance Rock.

When I heard the news reports of snow in the Santa Monica Mountains along Kanan-Dume road near Malibu, I hoped to find a little snow or hail up at Sage Ranch Park on my afternoon run.

The isolated snow showers, hail and sleet were produced by convective cells that developed as a result of instability associated with a passing upper level low. Some of these cells also generated some lightning and thunder.

There was no snow on the ground at Sage Ranch, but the low angle rays of the setting sun did highlight a snow shower over the Rocky Peak Park area. In March of last year there was snow at Sage Ranch and Rocky Peak.

Related posts: Chumash Trail Snow, Oat Mountain Snow, San Fernando Valley from Rocky Peak.

Hillside oak and trail near Laskey Mesa. From a run in Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve (formerly Ahmanson Ranch).

An ant forages among the florets of a wreath plant.

I've run past wreath plants thousands of times in the chaparral of local open space areas. At a glance, the nondescript wiry brown plant isn't very appealing. But, it's one of a few plants you'll see blooming in the chaparral in the Fall, so on a run this last November I took a closer look. This revealed a lavender-tinged composite flower that is anything but mundane. And, as I was to discover, a case of probable mistaken identity, and an example of one of the ways new species occur.

The open space areas in which I run would normally be lush and green by this time of year, particularly when there is an El Niño. But in the past 231 days (including today) the official weather station for Los Angeles has recorded only 1.31 inches of rain, and the hills remain a dank sun bleached gray-brown.

Chaparral Mallow (Malacothamnus fasciculatus) from a run at Sage Ranch Park on November 2, 2006.