Who approved this idea?

Southern California, where I live, is at the edge of a desert. We haven’t had a hurricane hit in recorded history. I’m fairly certain we haven’t had a tsunami hit either. Yes, we do have earthquakes, brush fires, and landslides when it rains after a brush fire.

I think most would agree that our weather is nice. We have no snow in the Winter. Technically, we do get snow in the Winter but the snow has stayed in the mountains except for the Winter of 1949 when we had snow in Los Angeles that lasted for less than a day. It gets hot in the Summer but we tend to have low humidity.

All of this brings me to the question of the day for me.

Why do two co-owned television stations in Los Angeles need a storm chasing SUV?

I’m not making this up.

The stations share ownership of a truly tarted up Toyota SUV. It has an emergency vehicle type light bar, brush bars, oversized tires, and a microsized weather station in the back. I’ve only seen it out in the “dangerous, stormy weather” a couple of times in maybe two years.

Anyone who is reading this by now must be thinking we are all crazy here.

Weather seems to take on a life of its own.

Our television weather news readers practically pee in their pants at the thought we might get a half inch of rain from storm. Time for a reality check, Southern California is in the third year of a drought.  

The mere thought of an approaching storm takes on the characteristics of a flood of Biblical proportions. The weather newsreaders seem to be looking for the boarding ramp to the Ark.

Our local television stations go on “storm watch.”

What is that?

I can watch a storm perfectly well from my balcony if I want to.

This all strikes me as a waste of money. The SUV would be perfect in a place like Oklahoma City where tornados are common or Miami Beach with its hurricanes but not in the desert of Southern California.

Is the person who approved this boondoggle of an SUV still working at the stations?

I hope not.

Be well and stay happy.