Rose Parade Weather: Always Sunny - Almost

While light rain is falling in the Pasadena area today, Wednesday, December 30, 2009, the forecast calls for the usual sunny skies on January 1 with highs in the upper 60s and possibly reaching the low 70s. This year's parade might even delight television viewers with snow showing on Mt. Baldy and on some of the higher peaks in the area with snow levels dropping to 6000 feet.

2010 is the 121st Rose Parade and rain on the parade has occurred 10 times. But I remember the 2006 Rose Parade when my sister, a real estate agent, and nephew were visiting from Pennsylvania.

There were two odd things about the parade that day: it poured and the parade was held on Monday, January 2 because the Rose Parade is never held on a Sunday. The Grand Marshall was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and LeAnn Rimes was an opening act to the festivities.

Winds whipping the palm trees and sheets or rain pouring made for a cold parade with temperatures only in the mid-to-upper 40s.

Water was pouring through the streets a few inches deep. We got to the parade a few miles from the start at Hill Avenue and Colorado Boulevard after the parade started passing.

What I remember is seeing rain blowing on occasion from gusts of wind, how easy it was to find a spot to watch, and how the crowds seemed to cheer almost as loudly as on a sunny day with packed grandstands.

We stayed less than an hour and then walked a couple of blocks to Tommy's Burgers to escape the cold and wind.
But the rain subsided later that day and we drove around the area through Hollywood, Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and enjoying much of what makes the Los Angeles area unique.

So rain does occur on the Rose Parade even though it rarely does happen. But what television viewers don't see is the rain that often falls right after Christmas Day on the bands and equestrian teams camped in and around the Rose Bowl parking lots.

But that soaking, pouring January 2, 2006 Rose Parade does have a life lesson for us: what we carry inside of us impacts how we approach life's festive moments and the challenges that surround them.

We can complain that our opportunities are ruined, or we can still cheer like the crowds on that cold, windy, rainy day in Pasadena that ruined the normally beautiful telecast for viewers and certainly disappointed many parade-goers.