While the rest of the country is suffering from some terrible Arctic chill, we here in California have not been left out of the weather calamity.

I know it's hard to believe, but the about an inch of rainfall we have received this past weekend has cause the San Diego River to overflow it's boundaries in Mission Valley and blocked one of the main roads into the best shopping center in town.

This might not compare to the freezing t-shirts and water that turns into ice in midair back east, but it is a big deal to those of us who watch how one little road is always closed off at the slightest bit of local precipitation.

Since Mission and Fashion Valley malls were built on a flood plain, this is par for the course in the winter. But this is minor flooding, compared to previous years when the water comes roaring down the San Diego River over the street and San Diego Lifeguards have to stand by, in case any one needs rescuing.

Heavy rains have always caused the San Diego River to rise to the point that it floods and city crews make haste to close off Avenida del Rio at Camino de la Reina. This blocks a heavily-used road in-and-out of the Fashion Valley Mall in Mission Valley.

The flooding is inconvenient for shoppers and those of us who like to see movies at the AMC Fashion Valley on rainy days. But this minor flooding is nothing compared to the heavy runoff back in December 2010, when a series of severe storms "damaged a service road at the mall, swamped a nearby golf course and flooded the field at Qualcomm Stadium," according to a story in the San Diego Union / Tribune.

Still, the roiling water headed towards the sea does make for some dramatic photos and give us quiche-eaters here in California the sensation that we, too, also experience extreme weather conditions, just like the rest of the country.