momoese

harveyc

Got down to 30F or lower again last night and had our 26th night of frost. I've only kept one thermometer outside, the one that read 4F higher than the other one the other morning.

We're supposed to stay warmer tonight (40F) and have a chance of rain each day for the next nine days. If that happens we might have more rain in one week than in the prior three months of our official rain season.

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momoese

Brrrrrr, it's in the 50's here. I'm going to go light the fireplace.

harveyc

Where the heck is Al Gore???

(specifically for Mitchel since he's missing these jokes)

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harveyc

We're going to Nicaragua in March to visit one of our sponsored children for her quinceanera. I look forward to the warm weather.

When we first met her on a group Mission Awareness trip she and other sponsored children traveled with us a couple of days and we spent the nights in the town of Diriamba where there is a retreat house. It's at 500 meters above sea level and a bit cooler than the capital of Managua and especially cooler than areas like Leon or the town she's from, El Sauce (even though the elevation there is a little higher). I'd guess that El Sauce is about 10 degrees cooler than Diriamba. On the first evening at the retreat house our sponsored child was having a difficult time dealing with the cool weather in the evening. I'd guess it was about 74F with no wind and it felt very pleasant to us but she was "freezing". Linda got a sweater for her and we rubbed her hands which were, indeed, very cold. Later in the trip one of the social workers from Managua warned be about the hot climate in Chinandega which we were going to be visiting. It was pretty warm there, probably in the low 90s with moderate humidity. When I told the social worker that I thought it was hot but not "that" hot, he was quite amazed.

A friend of mine told me that people who live in tropical climates have a less active thyroid and are less able to cope with temperature changes. I'm not sure if this is accurate or not, but it might explain why these folks in LA are having such a hard time dealing with the bitter cold.

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momoese

I get the joke, you must have missed mine when it was warmer here.

momoese

Fixed that for ya

Back to my fire, it might break into the 40's!

harveyc

There you go, just like Al with his big mansion, generating a bunch of CO2!!!

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Richard

Harvey, is it going to rain in time for your alfalfa seed?

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harveyc

I'm not very optimistic, but I might get surprised. I definitely have more weeds then seedling alfalfa at this point but there might be more plants there than I am recognizing. Besides the weather being dry, the cold weather has also been tough on the seedlings. I planted over $19,000 of alfalfa seed in November and might need to replant it all. I'm not sure if it's still the case but am hoping that Monsanto will waive the "technology fee" if I need to replant. That amounts to close to half the cost of the seed. We should be able to do a more accurate survey in 2-3 weeks if we actually get significant rain.

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Richard

Looks like a real possibility

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harveyc

Yeah, all of the forecasts call for some decent rain now and it's looking pretty good since it's already so close. Accuweather has shown quite a few storms a week out over the past month that never materialized, so it's not been very accurate. For what' it's worth, they're showing about 2.4" over the next week or so. Rio Vista, CA 94571 Month Weather Report - AccuWeather.com

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Richard

I guess if I lived downtown in a major city or near one of the airport or NOAA weather stations that AccuWeather obtains data from, I might find them useful. But I never have, and consequently I've always been skeptical of their reports.

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harveyc

They've often been okay for me but I've not found any that have been particularly accurate (especially this winter). I just use them to compare to others and like to look at their rain totals as something to hope for. I also use Wunderground, Weather.com, and Intellicast just to compare to one another, especially when I'm trying to make a decision on when to cut hay early or late in the season when rain damage is a significant risk. About 15 years ago I had 5 out of 6 cuttings get rained on after it was cut. The stars were aligned that summer, I guess.

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Richard

You mean like, Barry Manilow?

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harveyc

FWIW, accuweather had predicted this storm but had originally predicted it two days earlier. Not bad for 15 days out.

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bananimal

We hit 82F here in SE Fla today. Felt great to spend a whole day in shorts and tee again.

Oldest banana leaves had to be trimmed. Yellowed up from the 2 cold snaps we had so far this winter. Both Ae Ae look like heck but are still hanging in. RP, DB and DN bunches continue to fill in.

Richard

Here it comes. The continued high pressure mid-state might keep the cold air mass (and hence rain) from occurring in San Diego.

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harveyc

Been having light rain for the past few hours.

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harveyc

Oh, and we did have frost again last night even though my thermometer only reported 38F at 4:30am this morning. That was our 27th night with frost. Cloud cover was light so it still got pretty cold last night but we should remain frost free for the next week or so.

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