Moods of the sky behind our weather instruments 2019-20

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat observers of the seasons turning,

Hopefully most of you were more on the ball on this one than I was.  I knew the Summer Solstice was coming, but it was a particularly hectic week and I never had a chance to double-check on precisely the time.  As it turns out, the solstice happened while I was answering posting on the WeatherCat forum, so this is already old news.  Still I do have a picture to mark the occasion:



It is what used to be a typical example of the weather in Northern California for June.  Fog in the morning giving way to afternoon sunshine.  Alas, what was typical isn't anymore.  Even the Monterey office of the National Weather Service remarked at surprising lack of fog this year.  Without the fog, the temperatures have varied more the high side.  It is certainly looking like a hot and dry summer for California and much of the West.

For better or worse, Summer 2020 is here at last.

Cheers, Edouard

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat observers of the seasons turning,

This morning the fog was just the height needed to poke above our horizon but not completely obscure the sky.  It made for a pretty photo:



This was a fairly typical scene decades ago when the fog would intrude into the inland valleys almost every night.  It appears we might get one more week of nostalgia before the weather starts its turn toward the hotter and drier in the transition from Summer to Autumn.  Already the nervousness of wildfires is in the local media and our local electricity provider has broached that most disagreeable phrase: "Public Safety Power Shutoffs."

Such are the curious rituals to be found during the California dry season . . . . . . .

Edouard

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat observers of the seasons turning,

Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer and start of autumn.  Alas in California, autumn is wild fire seasons and as any scan of the US news will reveal - wild fire season has already started.  This morning I was greeted by a very surreal site:



While much redder, the sun appeared only about as bright as the full moon at 7:15 am.  The cause?  Winds are blowing parallel to the California coast and are bringing smoke from a number of fires in Mendocino county - most notably the August complex fire.  By 7:45 the sun was a bit more recognizable but it was hardly the bright sunshine expected of California:



I took one more picture at about 10:10 am:



It has been this way all day.  It isn't cold, we've exceeded 90˚ F (32˚ C) but it has been a gloomy as a cloudy January day and the forecast is similar for tomorrow.

Definitely a bizarre and surreal period here in California which has also featured rolling electrical blackouts and now Public Safety Power Shutoffs.

Oh well, . . . . Edouard 

[xairbusdriver]

Looks like a sales bonanza for room sized air-cleaning devices. My son in San Jose says it's not much better there.

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat observers of the season's turning,

Believe it or not, tomorrow is the Autumnal equinox.  You can find out exactly at what time this will happen at your location on this handy, dandy webpage:

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20200922T1330&msg=September%20Equinox%202020

Alas, here in California Autumn typically starts out as simply an extension of the miseries of Summer.  This sunrise shot taken yesterday shows that the smoke hasn't completely departed the scene:



Another unexpected side-effect of a run-on summer is the proliferation of spider webs:



With no strong storms to blow these things away, spider webs just get more and more tangled.  This leads to a particularly unpleasant situation as the days get shorter.  In the early morning light they are difficult to see and so I frequently plow into them while starting the drip irrigation circuits.

Whatever Autumn will bring your way, we'll all have to make the best of it - not much else we can do at this point . . . . .

Oh well . . . . ., Edouard

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat observers of the seasons turning,

Still waiting for any serious change of the seasons here in Northern California, but yesterday there was this pretty scene before sunrise:



In the meantime we still have smoky skies and marginal air quality.  Even in this photo you can see the haze beneath the clouds on the horizon.   Such are da' conditions that prevail these days in CA.

Oh well, . . . . . . Edouard