Unusually strong rain storm inundates Orinda Classic Car show.

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat weather watchers and automotive enthusiasts,

Yesterday was the 9th Annual Orinda Classic Car show.  This wouldn't seem significant weather-wise, but you would be mistaken!  The forecast for for a weak storm dropping perhaps 0.10" (2.5 mm) of rain.  Certainly a nuisance, but nothing to cause serious problems.  Unfortunately, the forecasters very seriously underestimated the storm.  Here is the Growl notification generated by my WC Storm Monitor AppleScript for the storm.



Because of the way Growl is configured, you'll have to read the right-most column first and then move left to continue "the action."

The rain started just as the show started and did not stop until the show was almost over. 

In total the storm gave my rain gauge 0.55" (14mm) of rain.  The average amount of rain for the whole month of September is only 0.37" (9.4mm).  With this one storm, we are already above average for cumulative rainfall for the 2013-2014 rainy season!!

So classic cars found themselves under conditions like this:



and this:



Worst still.  Some of the cars are displayed on a golf course lawn!!




The red 1970 Buick Gran Sport in the foreground had been driven to the show with the convertible top down.  The owner had to put it up literally the first time in years.  He normally never drives it when there is any risk of rain, so he normally stores the car with the top down year around - surprise! 

There was a vintage Porsche and $100,000 Shelby Cobra with their tops left down for the entire period of the deluge!!



How did my trusty wagon fair during all this?  Very well thank you!!  Since the engine isn't quite working yet, she was inside the service area!



Not only was she nice and dry, but because visitors couldn't take the rain, lots of folks were drawn to the service area.  With her new engine full of shiny chrome she definitely was the star of the show.

Alas, other vehicles didn't fair so well.  After the show I saw this old truck being pulled onto a flatbed transport truck. 



I'm sure that wasn't the only car that was damaged by the rain and was unable to start again.

So thanks to the weather, this Orinda classic car show is one that local classic car owners aren't going to soon forget!

Cheers, Edouard 

[Steve]

Edouard,

Wasn't this show inside last year due to rain? With your dry conditions, you need to have more car shows to alleviate the drought!  Your car is looking great!

Y'all are weird out there using words like storm and deluge for what passes as a light shower here in the Midwest. At the Mid-Ohio vintage show this year, there was something like 5" of rain over the weekend. That just made the racing more exciting and the cars in the infield shinier. Plus there was a giant pond where the road used to be for kids to play in.

[Gwyfyn1]

Oh! how I sympathise with you!!.We have only had 107mm this month so far and 631mm this year and this is a dry year! What you consider a storm would be looked at as low cloud here.

Aside from that what a cracking display of cars.

[Steve]

Aside from that what a cracking display of cars.

Absolutely! Looking through the slide show, I see more photos. The Riv is just gorgeous! And being a fan of wagons, it is nice to see the Nomad and whatever the other wagon is.

[elagache]

Howdy Steve, Gwyfyn1, and WeatherCat automotive enthusiasts,

Wasn't this show inside last year due to rain?

Actually no.  It is simply that my car has been displayed for the past 3 years in the actual Orinda Motors service bay building.  It is something of a long story of why, but last year the new engine was on display next to the car, and the engine had to stay inside.  This year, the car isn't really operational yet.

With your dry conditions, you need to have more car shows to alleviate the drought! 

Actually there are car shows almost every weekend in the spring and fall.  It must be like the saying: "washing your car to make it rain doesn't work."     

Your car is looking great!

Thank you!  She has come a long, long way!  My camera got wet and so the photos I took of the dash were blurry.  Eventually, I will post some before and after photos of the instruments and interior.  The engine looks good, but the interior is really amazing.

Y'all are weird out there using words like storm and deluge for what passes as a light shower here in the Midwest.

Yes I understand that, but you need to turn that idea around and then you can imagine why droughts are so terrible in places like California and New Mexico.  It always dry here - even in normal years.  Plants are "adapted" but they have very little margin to survive on.  A serious drought and California goes from savannah to desert in a hurry.

Oh! how I sympathise with you!!.We have only had 107mm this month so far and 631mm this year and this is a dry year! What you consider a storm would be looked at as low cloud here.

I would much prefer more rain and I have a feeling it rained more in California when I was younger.  A normal year around is around 25.4" (645.mm.)  The 2012-2013 rain year was about 20" or only 80% of normal.  However, we got almost 1/2 of that rain in one month: December.   Since January, we've gotten only 4" of rain - that's only 15% of the seasonal total.  For native plants - that's really a body blow.

Of course, the rain on the car show was really nasty because the car owners have really old cars that aren't maintained for any wet weather.  One fellow drove up to the show with is convertible top down.  He never puts it up.  Why bother?  He never drives when there is a risk of rain.  Well there was a risk of rain for the show and when the drops started falling, he had to put up the top in a hurry.  Lucky for him the convertible top didn't jam from lack of use.  Another fellow didn't have any top at all on his corvette and didn't even have working windshield wipers.  I suspect there will be a stink about what happened at the show, but I believe many classic car owners were lax in maintaining their cars and monitoring the forecast.  I wouldn't have brought my car to the show to have it sit in the rain for even an hour or two and I've done all the upgrading I can to make her waterproof.  Knowing the forecast, people brought cars from as early as the 1920s!! 

Oh well, . . . . .

Cheers, Edouard