A “fierce” storm “pounds” Southern California.

This “Pineapple Express,” “atmospheric river, “bomb cyclone” in the region is creating “highly dangerous,” even “life-threatening” conditions in our region. A flash-flood warning is issued, and Southlanders are urged to shelter in place, to avoid traveling our roads and freeways. The Cal State University system closes its campuses. A state of emergency is declared for the eight counties from San Luis Obispo on down.

Are these the end times? Or is it just raining?

Questions that lead to our Question of the Week: Given the weather system that moved in over the weekend and continues early this week, are California governmental authorities simply exercising proper caution in the interests of citizen safety, or are they wildly inflating the danger?

Would you have known of the incoming series of storms anyway and taken proper precautions — battening down the hatches, as it were — or did the government warnings help you decide to take the situation seriously?

Is this just ordinary weather for a California February — last year, it was our wettest month, and often is — or did we need the prodding?

Now that most everyone has a weather app or three on their smartphones, and can see for themselves which way the wind blows, and will blow, are official warnings as necessary as in days of old, when there were just a few broadcast radio and TV stations, and your local newspaper, to put you in the picture? Speaking of the media, does “Storm Watch ‘24” coverage, with its yellow-ponchoed reporters buffeted by the elements as the 101 Freeway in Santa Barbara inevitably floods, help you understand the situation and the possible dangers, or is it overhyped?

We were told last fall that an old-fashioned El Nino weather pattern — one that inevitably brings lots of rain — was on tap for this winter. Is this storm solely due to that natural occurrence, or is it also intensified by human-caused climate change?

Are you and yours weathering the storm OK, or is the creek still rising?

Email your thoughts to opinion@scng.com. Please include your full name and city or community of residence. Provide a daytime phone number (it will not be published).