16,660 miles

unreal. almost 17 thousand miles.

I'll be traveling a swath of land from about santa barbara, california to about the top of Vancouver Island, or, north of wilmington, NC to the top of New Foundland if the west coast does spark your appreciation for distance.

buenos aires (34,49.20) is about where vandenberg afb is (34,43.47) and jacksonville, NC (34,49.45).

el calafate is about alert bay, top of vancouver island, top of newfoundland

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storms on the horizon thurs-sun...

A LOOK AT RAINFALL STATISTICS FOR LOCATIONS AROUND OUR FORECAST AREA SHOWS THAT YEAR TO DATE RAINFALL IS RUNNING ONLY ABOUT 65-80% OF NORMAL. MOST...IF NOT ALL...OF THAT DEFICIT WILL BE ERASED LATE NEXT WEEK AND INTO THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND IF THE MEDIUM RANGE MODELS VERIFY. THE GFS AND ECMWF HAVE BEEN CONSISTENT IN FORECASTING A VERY WET PATTERN FROM THURSDAY THROUGH SUNDAY (JAN 3-6)...WITH PROGRESSIVELY WETTER SYSTEMS SLAMMING THE STATE OF CA DURING THAT TIME FRAME. THE INITIAL RAIN EVENT COULD BEGIN AS EARLY AS WEDNESDAY NIGHT. A HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK WAS ISSUED EARLIER TODAY TO CALL ATTENTION TO THE START OF THE WET PATTERN OUT AT THE END OF OUR CURRENT FORECAST PERIOD.

from the weather geeks...sounds like these two weak storms are bringing us closer to a much needed big storm. My guess is that they are talking about 7 to 10 inches...we'll have to see.

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4.9 in Ben Lo

compared with NOAA gauges

0.55 Moffett
1.41 SFO
1.46 SF
2.03 davenport
2.05 Loma Prieta
2.43 Soquel
5.58 Ben Lomond
5.72 Venado

looks like earlier claims of beating Venado were a product of chosen periods...

3.7 inches

finished with about 3.7 on my deck from Sun-Tues.



cleared up real nice right after, now a heavy fog is coming up from the san Lo.



...and the arroyo de pedro has water in it for the first time since late May!

ah some rain. now time for mushrooms.

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rain in the sc mtns.

So I am over 3 inches since sunday, making this the biggest rain event so far in my stay in the mountain.

Right now the river is about 90% of normal flow and the average for this storm is over 200 cfs at the Big Trees Station.

I queried the month mean stream flow of the San Lorenzo at Big Trees...about two miles south of here...data goes back since 1936

The highest point I have ever seen this gauge at any point is 12,000 cfs

The highest monthly mean since 1997...

cfs
1,853 Feb 98 (highest on record from '36)
1,172 Jan 97
841 Feb 00
746 Mar 06
470 Jan 05
470 Dec 02
466 Dec 06

other notables...month of love creek slide...1,167

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rain begins

we've got almost 0.5 inches already...about 1am. Sounds like we could end up with 3 or 4 after a couple of days.

1.2 inches

A nice soaker came through the santa cruz mountains yesterday and this morning. The rain event had lots of orography; from the radar it looked like none was falling at the coast. But there was not much orographic difference between the Ben Lo raws site 1.18 and my own 1.2, as usually I would expect. That should be enough to get those mushrooms rolling again. Now we are expecting wind...

in case you missed the amazing waves on Tuesday...some said mavericks had a 70 foot wave...a new surf legend for SC....
http://www.santacruzlive.com/blogs/video/2007/12/05/sentinel-video-high-surf-in-santa-cruz/

the high seas of December

The seas were quite spectacular today. At Cape Mendocino they got to be 30.4 feet at one point when I checked. The waves were about 15-20 feet in Monterey Bay. I think they were kicking up enough moisture to make fog about 80 feet high. This pic was taken from West Cliff over near Its beach. There were lots of rescue folks out there. One guy got rescued from Woodrow. Another surfer died over near Pebble Beach out near those famous cypresses. The waves were supposedly huge there. Some said 50-60 foot walls of water. And there was 0.14 more in Ben Lo.

another 0.05

Ben Lo had another minor sprinkle. The energy in the air is definitely changed. The brisk wind out of the south is not common. The waves are set to be big the next few days. Cape Mendocino is reporting seas of 22.4 early this morning.

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surprise showers

They said santa lucias, but obviously some rain made it to the sc mtns. This rainbow was dipping into the summit area near mt. Umunum. Ben Lomond got 0.03. The high was 50. It was very chilly out there today.

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lowest high since April

today's high was 54, the coldest high for the day since April 14th 2007. Even santa cruz, where I spent most of the day, was a cool 55.

SoCal got rain and tomorrow it might even make it to the Santa Lucias, but our dry streak will continue.

frost shots

peppers


eggplant


tomatoes



artichokes made it.

The last note on the wx was wrong. Still no rain on the way...not until December at least.

frost = end of garden season

Today is the day the garden stopped growing. I picked about 20 peppers yesterday, and now there are about 20 more. But the plants are dead from the frost. Same with the eggplant and tomatoes. November 23rd is the end of the tomato season? I'll take it any day.

Boletes need rain

They are calling for frost, which may be good for adding a little moisture. We'll have to check. These are all boletes from this fall.


boletus edulis (porcini)

boletus appendiculatus(butter bolete)

boletus appendiculatus(Baby butter bolete)

Boletus regius (red capped butter bolete) or Boletus satanas (satan's bolete)
not sure...

But rain may be on the way!!!

A PRETTY VIGOROUS FRONTAL SYSTEM IN FROM THE PACIFIC. WILL HAVE TO WATCH HOW THIS SYSTEM EVOLVES BETWEEN NOW AND THEN.

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Leonids

Late tonight and into the morning...though it is supposed to be a trickle.

oysters and boletes

 

yes. they taste as good as they look. the porcinis went into a cream sauce and the oysters went with garlic as a side. yum!

Mushroom ecologies

Mushroom photos

Measurable precip.

The Santa Cruz Mountains had an early start to the rainy season here. Mid-Sept rains following by a decent storm in early October. four inches of early rains...but since then it has been dry.

Until this weekend when the rain gauge on my deck measured 0.4 (elevation 540), and the Ben Lomond RAWS site got about 0.77. The BenLo RAWS is at 4.73 in for the season. (The RAWS is at an elevation of 2598 ft.)


Summary
Ben Lo RAWS 4.73
Ben Lo Pedro 3.96 + 0.4 = 4.36
SFO 2.70
Cresent City 9.70

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porcini season

 

Time to go out and find those porcini mushrooms. I found my first and biggest porcini on October 27th. This is a smaller (but tastier) one.

November sunsets

When it rains it spores!!

We had 0.28in of precip from sept 22-23. I've never seen it that early.

Its Oct 15th and we have 2.91 inches for the year. thats pretty good for mushrooms!

Perseid peak

Tonight is the peak of the Perseids. Go out and see them. The peak will be about 4am in the morning of Monday.

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Perseid season

wow. no entries for May, June, or July.

The days of the Perseids are here. I've seen a dozen or so already, and the peak is still two nights away.

The marine layer cooled things off here a bit the past few days. Good relief.

Those damned deer have thieved many veggies so far. But I will fend them off.

Look out for the Aurigids on Sept 1 at precisely at 4:36 am. I'll be on the Middle Fork of the American.

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FOG

I watched the fog role in around midnight. first across the san lorenzo valley, then newell creek, then finally the meadow. this morning the fog didn't burn until around 10:30am. The latest I've seen here. Thats a good sign that I've escaped the June gloom!

Latest fog burn of the year? (for 2000 foot marine layer)

Today was the latest the fog has burned off. Just about noon. It burned off from the NW. yesterday at sunset we watched the fog roll in through the Pescadaro pass and into the San Lo valley over waterman gap. It moved right before our eyes. wish i had my camera!

Ben Lomond

I have moved to Ben Lomond.

ben lomond

1.7 in Ben Lomond

 

Had a bit of rain last night. I drove back in it last night from SF to SC. It was light rain in SF, then clear in san Jose and rainy again over the SC mtns.

There was no rain after sunrise today except for some spots out near bonny doon.

There is a chance that this was the last significant rain of the year.

The Graham Hill station reported the rain peaking in intensity at 4am, ending by 7 with 1.2 inches. I was asleep.


THE BEN LOMOND RAWS STATION IN THE SANTA CRUZ
MTNS HAD 1.70 INCHES.

It got up to 62.

March 2007 garden

Here is what things are looking like as we move into the last week of March.

I want to do more, but I'm moving to a new place soon.

march 2007 garden

Mexico August 2002

Wow. I was very happy discover long lost photos of my trip to Mexico in August 2002. I am posting them here. I spent a bunch of time in Mexico City, a few days in Oaxaca City, and the rest in Chiapas. It is a beautiful country!

Mexico in August 2002

Chiapas 2002

Today warmed up a ton, especially in the late afternoon. No mushrooms out there. But I have almost 50 poppies in the yard.

Spring: Day 1

Happy vernal equinox,

My Santa Cruz springs always make me think of wisterias. Its a weedy vine that is often invasive. But it smells incredible and I love a plant that can makes color before it turns green.

Here is the bloom from March 21 2003

Here is the bloom from March 31 2004


This year it looks a little behind schedule.

morrissey gardens

morrissey gardens

To celebrate the last day of winter, I have added my garden pics....

starting this blog

These are stories I wanted to put into text. Blogs seem like an interesting way to accomplish this, particularly with photos. I've been keeping one at wunderground.com on the weather. Though I'll probably have alot of weather here too. Maybe switch all together.