Rodeo Drive Christmas Week - Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful

Photo by Christophe Choo

This is what it has looked like over the past week on Rodeo Drive.
Wet and empty.  Sales have been slow on the street at a crucial time for luxury retail.
But we had a hint of sun this morning so the deluge might finally be over.
But I'm not going to complain about the weather
especially after seeing photos taken by my friends in Europe.

Here is a snowy lane in the winter wonderland of Günne, Germany.

The only thing missing is a horse drawn sleigh.

Global Warming - UK Style

From The Independent
March 2000
Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past

By Charles Onians

Britain's winter ends tomorrow with further indications of a striking environmental change: snow is starting to disappear from our lives.

Britain's winter ends tomorrow with further indications of a striking environmental change: snow is starting to disappear from our lives.


Sledges, snowmen, snowballs and the excitement of waking to find that the stuff has settled outside are all a rapidly diminishing part of Britain's culture, as warmer winters - which scientists are attributing to global climate change - produce not only fewer white Christmases, but fewer white Januaries and Februaries.

"Children just aren't going to know what snow is," he said.
(note: the high quality scare quote...but what about the children!!!!)

Mr. Onians, apparently not.

From the Mail Online
Coldest December since records began as temperatures plummet to minus 10C

Temperatures are likely to drop into the minus teens in places, with towns and cities as cold as -8c (18f).

‘It’s going to stay like this throughout Christmas and New Year, but by the middle of next month things will slowly return to normal and we could perhaps see the beginning of the end.
‘Nevertheless, this December is almost certainly going to become the coldest since records began in 1910.
‘It’s already a lot colder than the previous record which was set in 1981.’
The Met Office tonight issued heavy snow warnings for northern Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and south-west England.

It's so good to know that that now the children of the UK will know what snow is.