There was a 4.2 Richter Scale earthquake in Lafayette, in Contra Costa County east of San Francisco, at 8:40 PM last night.

There were no reported injuries. The quake was felt from Sonomo in the north to San Jose in th south, and has been followed by some smaller aftershocks.

At 3:00 AM this morning there was 3.0 earthquake in Healdsburg, less than 50 miles from here in Ukiah.

San Francisco still awaits The Big One. Meanwhile, last May saw the strongest earthquake recorded in Stockholm in many years. It was only 2.0 on the Richter Scale, and only shook people up a bit.

Earthquakes are about the only drawback to California’s wonderful climate. Right now the middle of the United States is reeling from storms that deposited massive amounts of snow in the northern Midwest, and spawned lethal tornados farther south, in Alabama and southwest Georgia.

Two years ago, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, it was one of the worst Caribbean hurricane seasons ever recorded, and many said it was a sign of Climate Change. When last year’s season was milder than normal, those who deny global warming claimed it proved their case. But the onset of extreme weather doesn’t mean extremes every year, it means wide variations.

Now the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the El Niño current off Peru is turning into a La Niña, which will mean many more Atlantic hurricanes this coming season.

In Sweden we had the warmest January in recorded history this year, but at the end of the month the weather changed and late January and early February saw unusually much snow and cold temperatures.