Rain

[Higgs Boson]

First rain of the season, a pretty healthy one. Unusually early for So. Calif. coastal, where "rainy season" usually runs from Nov to March + or -. But whole year has been anomalous. Global warming.

Caught some H20 in buckets and barrels, for indoor plants.

Will this make my celery finally germinate? Sowed seed at least 3 weeks ago. On-line says celery slow to germinate, but how slow? Seed is from SLOLA (Seed Library of Los Angeles), which is dedicated to preserving biological diversity. "Subscribers" get free seeds on the understanding that they will take some seed from their crop and return to Library. So I figgered it should be gude (intentional) but would welcome input related to my climate.

TIA

HB

[David E. Ross]

The California Department of Water Resources uses an October-to-September "rain year", primarily because rain is rare at the end of September and the beginning of October. In 2 of the past 8 rain years, more than 200 days elapsed without any measurable rain in southern California. In 6 of those same 8 rain years, there was measurable rain in October. Over longer periods, measurable rain has fallen in every month. Usually 75% of the rain falls in December through February. July tends to be the driest month.

We got 0.46 inches yesterday, north of the Ventura Freeway and east of Thousand Oaks. This was the first measurable rain in 120 days.

[j]

How do you garden with .46" of rain in 4 months?

It's been raining about once a month here, and I can't figure it out. Water here (Atlanta) is about 2 cents/gallon, I didn't put in much of a garden this year. I did add a small pond that is hooked up to about a quarter of my roof and I still have to add a bit of city water.

As far as Texas... it's crazy the stuff people believe, instead of believing in global warming.

Jeff

>

[David E. Ross]

Our "rain year" has just begun. During a rain year, an average of 13.4 inches of rain falls; but this is highly variable. Most of the rain falls in December through February.

Much of southern California is arid if not outright desert. Most gardens have sprinkler systems. Take a look at my "Climate" Web page (link in my signature below).

Some areas depend at least partially on ground water, recharged from mountain runoff. The mountains do get more rain than the valleys and plains. However, some 17,000,000 people are dependent on the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). MWD imports water from the Colorado River and -- via the California Water Project -- from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Both sources are over-committed, which means we should garden as if in a drought even when we have record-breaking rain years; see my .

There are also areas that irrigate with reclaimed water, the output of sewage plants. A beautiful Japanese garden in the San Fernando Valley was specifically created to provide a use for excess reclaimed water from a Los Angeles City sewage plant. In my own community, parks, greenbelts, school playgrounds, and two nearby golf courses are irrigated with reclaimed water.

[songbird]

David E. Ross wrote: ...

"The result was been a permanent reduction of 15% in water deliveries to southern California water systems (private water companies and government water agencies). "

was been? :)

glad to see things have improved lately with the resevoirs.

songbird

[Billy]

Unfortunately, much of the water that southern California uses to wash their cars, and hose-off their side walks comes from northern California where the salmon need it.

[Gunner]

No, what is unfortunate is that your fairy tale version of this issue is grossly misleading and contradicted by too many real facts. Salmon's decline issues are over fishing, your Central Valley agriculture and the current cyclic drought and not your misguided attempt to put this into your eco fringe bag.

SoCal's water consumption would have very little, if anything, to do with the N. Cal salmon decline. Yes 60% of SoCal's water is imported yet the majority is coming from the Colorado River drainage as well as the Owens valley. There is diversion from the Bay/Delta Ag use to human use but that water is coming from the southern edge of the salmon range and has been reduced over the last decade. Claiming salmon decline in the Northern Coastal region is somehow caused by washing cars and hosing streets is a sound bite pandering to your Eco base. It does nothing to address the real issue of unsustainable growth in a desert but we already had that conversation when you supported the idea of damming the desert and encouraging growth where it shouldn't be in the Ceara region of Brazil.

Limited water sure make Hydroponics sound more attractive.

....still we still snip 12 lines of political crap along with this 3 lines of OT propaganda.