Southwest Region
Southwest Region
Here is one day in the life of a teacher in California,
It’s still raining in California. We’re having a storm today and more rain is expected. The way I get to school has been closed for over a week, but opened yesterday. It’s a two lane road through a canyon which has become a major commuter artery in the San Francisco Bay Area. When it is closed, people have to drive around which clogs already clogged freeways. It usually only takes me a half hour to get to school. The road was closed because of mud and rock slides. It’s still a mess and the creek running through the canyon is filled with muddy rushing water. Our students (over seven hundred) are tired of staying inside and we long to see the sun. Tuesday weather was very nice and yesterday’s wasn’t too bad. We are glad that it is not cold! After all we live in California which is supposed to be sunny.
Here is a note from Kansas,
When I was a baby I was in a tornado. My dad and I were in it. My dad was driving. He was trying to go to my uncle's house because we didn't have a basement. We made it, but it was too late. The tornado sucked my dad and I out of the house. It threw me, in my car seat, into a field in the country and my dad broke his neck. The cops found me and I had a broken arm, cuts, and scratches, and a head injury. I had to go with my grandma. This is hard for me to remember because I was only six months old. It is sad, but now we are all OK.
From Hawaii,
In the winter we get ocean swells that originate in the Aleutian Islands and can bring 20-25' waves on the North Shore of all the Islands.These waves are really, really big, but there are actually people that go out and ride them on specially built surfboards called "guns" also known as "rhino chasers." In some places, the only way to get out to the point you need to get to, in order to ride the waves, is to be towed out by a jet ski (wave runner). When a surfer gets wiped out, he needs to be able to hold his breath for at least a minute and a half because the turbulence doesn't allow him to get to the surface. Even as experienced as these surfers are, one or two die a year in this huge surf. In the summer, we occasionally get South Swells which are nowhere near as big and originate out off New Zealand.
Another Hawaiian Story
There was a particularly big eruption about ten years ago on the Big Island. But even today lava slowly comes out, but so does smoke containing sulfur, mercury, and arsenic. 80% of the time the tradewinds blow and keep this VOG (volcanic fog) off Maui. When the trades don't blow, the VOG drifts over Maui and it gets hazy.
Interesting Facts
A tsunami is a form of tidal wave. The last one in Hawaii was in the 70's.
Hawaiian houses have no insulation, no heating system, or fireplace because the temperature ranges from about 50 degress F to about 90 degrees F. People in Hawaii never need sweaters or lots of layers of warm clothes.
Windows are mostly jalousie so the cool tradewinds that pick up moisture when they travel across the ocean can cool the house off.
