Cold and damp

[Higgs Boson]

This is an absolutely meaningless message that I feel safe to post only because I'm among friends (I hope!)

It's April 14. Cold, damp, rain or threatening. In So. Calif coastal, we have -- or had, before global warming -- several late spring months that dismay tourists who were expecting fabled Calif. beach weather. "Gray May" and " June Gloom" are caused by ocean weather patterns.

Now the damn things seem to have advanced into April. Have to wait and see. Not that the rain isn't welcome, since this is basically a desert area. It blossomed/exploded into a megalopolis (sp?) thanks to the "Chinatown" importation of water from upstate by Mulholland. Would have been neat to live here in the 20's and 30's, when the smell of orange blossoms filled the air, and there was no traffic, and, and, and.. (Yes, of course there were downsides.)

I need to get out into the garden -- plant some more vegs and weed, weed, weed. Big chicken huddles in the house...

HB

[David E. Ross]

This winter has been really strange.

Counting from the beginning of November to the end of March, the average winter chill in my area (about 30 miles from you, between the San Fernando Valley and Thousand Oaks) over the 11 years prior to this past winter was 365 hours at or below 45F, ranging from 153 hours to 544 hours. At 313 hours for this past winter, we were well within that range and not really far from the average. However, 24% of those hours were in the second half of March, following relatively warm January and February. Thus, one-fourth of the chill was ineffective, occurring after my roses and peach tree started blooming.

Then there is rainfall. In California, summer is the dry season; and winter is the "not so dry" season. Thus, a "rain year" is measured from October to September. In the prior eight rain years, over 70% of the rainfall was in the months of December through February. So far, those months account for only 23% of this year's rainfall. Generally, no significant rain falls after the beginning of April. The average April rainfall over the prior eight rain years was only 6% of the year's total. So far, this April accounts for 11% of the total.

[Higgs Boson]

Awesome! You are a stats demon!

I usually go around with my head up my, uh, statistics, hardly noticing the weather from year to year, because it has been so steady over the [censored] years I have been in Santa Monica. I just hope these anomalies don't **** up my blueberries, which will be going into their second year. I realize they are bred for mininum winter chill, but they didn't get much of anything this year, The plum and apricot, also planted last year, are just timidly starting to leaf out.

Group members in other climates might find it hard to realize what a difference our respective microclimates can make!

You do the praying for me; nobody listens to me Up There!

Well...I dunno, BIG LOUD THUNDER just shook the house...are they trying to tell me something...

HB

[David E. Ross]

That was this morning. Since then, nearly an inch of rain has fallen. The current storm brought slightly over 1.5 inches, starting around

1:00am this morning.

Now, the months of December through February account for 19% of this "rain year's" rainfall (versus an average of over 70% in those three months). April (not yet half over) now accounts for 27% of the current year's total. March and April together now account for well over half the year's total.

Usually, the California Department of Water Resources bases its prediction of the state's water supply on the amount of precipitation from October through March. Not this year!!

[David E. Ross]

I wanted to create a Web page that describes the climate in my garden. See . This required creating spread sheets for rainfall, winter chill, and monthly temperature ranges.

Fortunately, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) has a Web site with archived daily and even hourly data. There is an automated weather station just about 2 miles east of me that sends hourly data via satellite to a DWR computer, which updates the Web site automatically. (Data are sent about 40 minutes after they are collected.)

The nearest weather station to you that reports to the DWR computer is MLB (Malibu). See . This appears to be high on a hill between Topanga and Malibu Canyons. Other stations appear near you on a map; but when I tried to get details, I found they are either inactive or rely on manual data collections (generally, only rainfall).