Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Let it rain! El Niño brings much needed relief to San Francisco

The big story of year so far in the Bay Area are the El Niño rains that FINALLY arrived this month.  The constant rainstorms (11 storms so far in January) will hopefully break the multi-year drought in California.
 I've regularly been out and about the streets of San Francisco grabbing photos (and videos) of the rain for weather articles on the SFGate.
I love shooting feature photos in the rain.  It's a bit of a challenge because I usually end up taking my images in the same several block radius around the Chronicle building.  However, if you keep your eyes open and your camera ready, there are fresh photographs to grab everywhere.
 Around the Powell Street cable car turnaround, the lighting can be exceptionally beautiful before the sun rises.
And you never know what unusual sight you might see on the turnaround!

Some of the rains storms have packed high winds...
...and some have a deluge of rain.
In others storms, the precipitation is so light you barely need to carry an umbrella.
I don't think I'm alone in hoping the rainstorms continue for months!

Just make sure to have your proper rain gear to help you stay dry!

If you have a few seconds more, check out this video I took last week of a rainy commute in San Francisco: