Hurray! An early start to the 2014-15 rain in Northern CA!

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat drought watchers,

It has been feeling more autumn-like in Northern California than you would expect for September.  Starting last week the forecast models started to bring a storm far enough south to bring us some much needed rain.  Of course the models didn't remain consistent but in the end:



It wasn't much rain, but even 0.11" (2.8mm) will give the plants some relief on their leaves and it was enough to reduce some the dust that was everywhere.  Better still, the forecast models are starting to converge on another storm for next week!  Certainly too early to hope for an end to the drought but it s a promising start!

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat drought watchers,

Definitely continuing to watch the weather tensely because we are continuing to running behind normal rainfall here in Orinda.  However, we got our first storm for October:



It was a little storm, just got 0.13" (3.3mm) out of it.  But two additional storms are forecast for Friday-Saturday and Monday-Tuesday.  It is only mid-October and October isn't typically a wet month at all.  In contrast, we didn't get a drop for all of October last year.  So we'll see, here's to hoping for a more normal winter in 2014-15.

Cheers, Edouard 

[Bull Winkus]

Glad to hear it Edouard! Best of luck to you in getting that extra moisture.

[HantaYo]

Here is to 

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat drought watchers,

We have been suffering from "close but no cigar" on the past few storms.  The rain would stop just north of the San Francisco bay area.  However, early this morning the rain finally came down in a more substantial amounts.  We've only gotten 0.35" (8.9 mm) but October is not usually a very wet month and sometimes we get no rain at all.  We might pickup a little more rain with the afternoon instability.  I got my camera out and took a few pictures of what is now an unusual site around here.  Here are two pictures of a wet Davis ISS:





Here are a few pictures of the trees putting on their fall "plumage."





Here is one more photo with ripening Pyracantha berries and more autumn foliage:



The latest forecast is for no more rain until the end of next week, so it will be tough to make our average seasonal rainfall for October, but at least the storms are coming!

Cheers, Edouard 

P.S. Thanks to JC for the new nifty rain emoticon!    I hope I'll have lots of opportunities to use it! 

[Blicj11]

Nice to hear Edouard. Thanks for the beautiful photos. We have a 20% chance of rain tomorrow from the remnants of your storm and looking forward to our first hard freeze of the season.

[Bull Winkus]

Glad to hear it Edouard! Hope you get more!

Time to reel up the garden hose, ay Blick? I'm keeping an eye on the overnight lows in the forecast here for that very reason. But, we may actually have a week or two to go.

[Blicj11]

Yes, Herb. In fact, this afternoon I blew out all the irrigation drip lines and drained the hose. We are looking to drop into the low to mid 20s tomorrow night.

[elagache]

Dear Blick, Herb, and WeatherCat dwelling caregivers . . . .

Nice to hear Edouard. Thanks for the beautiful photos.

You're welcome!  It is fun to get the camera out once in a while and see what I can do with it.

We have a 20% chance of rain tomorrow from the remnants of your storm and looking forward to our first hard freeze of the season.

Glad to share some of that rain.  The bad news is that we aren't supposed to get any more rain until Friday.  The good news is that the current forecast model indicate this next storm will be substantially more "assertive" (and wet) than the last one! 

Time to reel up the garden hose, ay Blick? I'm keeping an eye on the overnight lows in the forecast here for that very reason. But, we may actually have a week or two to go.

Yes, Herb. In fact, this afternoon I blew out all the irrigation drip lines and drained the hose. We are looking to drop into the low to mid 20s tomorrow night.

  . . . . Sufferin' succotash,  isn't there always some chore that you've gotta do around da' house!  

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat budding photographers,

High cirrus is coming over the our region ahead of the hopefully really juicy storm expected on Friday.    I took my camera out with its polarizer filter to capture some more scenes of autumn.   I snapped this nice mix of fall colors and appealing clouds:



The other photo is one of those "amazing" moments when you get into exactly the precise position to see something really odd - completely by accident.  I was taking a photo of something else, turned around and saw - this!!



I was in exactly the right place to have the tree lined up perfectly behind the chimney and with the trunk essentially the same size as the chimney.  Definitely a surreal shot!

Cheers, Edouard 

[HantaYo]

Edouard,

I am surprised there is anything green at your house - with the historic drought

[Blicj11]

I was in exactly the right place to have the tree lined up perfectly behind the chimney and with the trunk essentially the same size as the chimney.  Definitely a surreal shot!

If any of you were Myst enthusiasts, I think that is the tree that links you to Channelwood.

If you never played Myst, I am sorry for your loss.

[Felix]

If any of you were Myst enthusiasts, I think that is the tree that links you to Channelwood.

Wow, you sure took me back to the mid-90s, Blick. I spent a lot of hours at a Mac keyboard playing that marvelous game.   

[elagache]

Dear Jeff, Blick, Felix, and WeatherCat drought watchers,

First the forecast . . . . pictorially of course:



I snapped this photo this morning and it is perfectly consistent with the old saying:

    Red sky at morning, sailors take warning;
    Red sky at night, sailors' delight.

Believe it or not there is a Wikipedia article on this saying:

Did you know that Jesus is quoted in the gospel of Matthew (16:2-3) making the same observation?  Jesus is known to be a lot of things, but now we have to add weather forecaster to the list!  William Shakespeare also said something similar in his play: Venus and Adonis.

Better still, the National Weather Service is also sticking to their wet forecast! 

I am surprised there is anything green at your house - with the historic drought

Well, people water around here - a lot!  Also our water district had been better than most in preparing for a potential drought.  We only had a 10% voluntary restriction.  Lots of other places in California weren't so lucky.

If any of you were Myst enthusiasts, I think that is the tree that links you to Channelwood.

Wow, you sure took me back to the mid-90s, Blick. I spent a lot of hours at a Mac keyboard playing that marvelous game.   

Ditto! My dissertation chair and I were actually beta-testers on the original Myst game.  We couldn't figure out how to get into all the world, but because we got a prototype version, there was a way to get to the actual hypercard code, so I was able to get us to all the worlds so we could complete our evaluation!

Cheers, Edouard 

[Bull Winkus]

 
OK, let's all join hands and sing, "It's A Small World." At the time Myst was being developed, I lived in Tyler, Texas. Cool, huh?

What? Oh. I was a member of TAMU, Tyler Area Macintosh Users. Rand Miller was one of our members. He showed me Manhole, his first foray into adventure gaming in Hypercard. It was before color Macs, even. So, when he and his brother finished Myst, I had to run out and buy it! At the time, it was awesome! Today? Not so much, but what a unique use of Hypercard.

You know, you can still get Hypercard today, but it has a different name and a different owner. It's called SuperCard?.