Rain, Rain, Go Away

A little rain, a little wind and suddenly it’s Storm Watch 2001 for Southern California. Not that it wasn’t a devastating weather system that hit us last week. We even heard that a tree fell down. And the temps got down into the 40s. How do we survive?

Here are a few sites that will give some perspective to our brutal winters.

Feel it’s too brisk for that club crawl on the Sunset Strip? Take a little trip to Vyborg, Russia (https://www.vbg.ru), which looks about as warm as it is lively.

But maybe Vyborg’s urban sophistication is too much for you. Try lovely Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, Canada (https://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/samson3/cbcam.htm), where the temperature may almost get up to freezing.

Right, a bit too toasty for winter.

Anchorage (https://camera.touchngo.com) has temperatures in the teens. But those spoiled Northerners appear to have electricity. If they think Alaskan winters make them tough, they should try being Edison customers.

Closer to the North Pole and in the Arctic Circle is Tromso, Norway (https://www.cs.uit.no/cgi-bin/weather), where it’s 18 degrees Fahrenheit and at this time of year really, really dark all the time.

For another permanent winter wonderland--this time with sunlight--swing around the world. Casey Station, Antarctica, has its Web cam at https://www.aad.gov.au/stations/casey/video.asp. Summertime temps down there are a cozy 29 degrees Fahrenheit.

Not that you have to go that far afield for your chill factors. In Minneapolis there’s Robocam (https://www.channel4000.com/livecams), which lets you pick your own scene, as long as it’s cold.

A little bit of North Dakota, the other garden state, can be seen with the Fargo cam at https://www.in-forum.com/weather/camera.htm. You know, 15 degrees isn’t as cold as it used to be. Fargo isn’t a one-cam town either. There’s another at https://www.kx4.com/weat_skycam.html.

And check out the ice rink at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan at https://www.ftna.com/cents.cgi. But you can’t get close enough to see who’s falling down.

Ice rinks are one good thing about winter. Skiing is another. Snoweye (https://www.snoweye.com) has links to ski resort cams around the world, including Greece, not usually known for its alpine slopes. There are also cams from resorts in Chile and Argentina, but, oops, there’s that summer thing again.

Locally, you can check out conditions at Snow Summit (https://www.snowsummit.com/index.php3) and Bear Valley (https://www.bearvalley.com/index1.html), apparently neither of which needs to make snow this week.

But enough of the Icevilles. Just because it’s a cam doesn’t mean it has to freeze. You can chill in the warmth too.

In Darwin, in far north Australia, it’s in the high 80s. Its storm cam is at https://www.qantmnt.au-net.com/webcam. It’s hot and humid there and, oh yeah, the season for those pesky cyclones.

At Capecam (https://www.capecam.co.za) you can view pics from “The fairest cape in the world,” Cape Town, South Africa. By fair they must mean “attractive,” right?

Our own fair San Diego has a Harbor Drive video cam at https://www.leefindustries.com/webcam. Optional sounds are available.

People are wearing shorts in Lahaina, Maui. See what you’re missing at https://www.mauigateway.com/~rw/video/lahaina.html.There’s a bunch of live surf cams at Swell/Surfline (https://www.swell.com/sw/surflinehome) from top surf spots, including Waimea, Black Point and Kawaihae. The site also has live cams from other beaches (including Northern and Southern California), but we’re on Hawaii here, so keep up. More Maui weather cams can be found at https://hawaiiweathertoday.com/mwt/mwt_livecams.html#livecams.

If you want it even hotter, try Mauna Loa (https://www.volcanogallery.com/HawaiiLiveCam.htm) on the Big Island. For the latest eruption status of Kilauea, try https://www.volcanogallery.com/volcano_eruption.htm.

These sites are making us want to visit https://www.hawaiianair.com.

To bring us back to Earth, or at least L.A., we went to a live Hollywood cam that the viewer controls at LiveLand (https://www.liveland.com). The view was of rain.

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Robert Burns is an assistant Business editor at The Times.