Sometimes the weather is actually a thing to discuss

[swan_tower]

I am a solar-powered person, and as such, winter is often a difficult time for me. Not just the short days, but the dreariness: grey skies and — at least theoretically, since I’ve come to live in the Bay Area — frequent rain. It makes me grumpy, and I long for sunny weather.

Of course, this hasn’t been so true of late. Not just that we’re in a drought, and saw almost no rain last winter, but my response to it. A month or two ago my mother asked whether we were still having “beautiful weather” out here. I said that at this point, my notion of “beautiful weather” is a nice steady downpour. Rain is no longer a cause for complaint; I feel like I ought to be grateful for what we get, and (so far, anyway) I am.

We’ve just been through a spate where it feels like the dry spells are things that interrupt the rain, rather than the rainy spells interrupting the dryness. It is, in a word, a godsend, and I hope it continues — though as my husband pointed out, the real question is how much snowfall the Sierra Nevadas are getting. What falls on the Bay Area as a liquid right now is nice, but what falls on the mountains as a solid is what we’ll be using all next summer. I’ve glanced at some sites trying to answer that question, but they’re all geared toward skiers, and I care less about how many lifts are running than about where we stand vis-a-vis the averages for this time of year. I feel like this much rain here must translate to some amount of snow inland, but I don’t really know the weather patterns of the region well enough to be sure.

There’s a storm coming in soon, though, and apparently we’re at risk of flooding because the ground is already saturated. This actually sounds like a good thing to me. (Much better than the kinds of floods Dallas is prone to, where everything runs off because the ground is so dry and hard, and the storm so brief and fierce, that nothing has time to sink in.) It’s a price to pay, of course, but if I have to choose between saturated ground and the winter we had last year, I choose the rain, every time.

Even if the weather does get me down sometimes.

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[mme_hardy]

I'm in a similar situation (across the bay from you: hi.) Given the drought, I am thankful for every drop of rain, and especially the ones that fall as snowpack up in the mountains and melt slowly over the summer.

Morally, I cheer at every storm cloud. Practically, low threatening weather worsens my migraines. Ah, well. It's still worth it! Especially since I'm too scared to go down into the garden and confirm that my young scarlet-stemmed Japanese maple died in the drought.

[swan_tower]

I didn't know you were in the East Bay!

Our underground garage actually flooded a bit last night, with all of the floor drains backing up to form small lakes.

[mme_hardy]

I thought you were in the East Bay! I'm on the Peninsula.

Flooding is one of my dreads; I've lost books to basement floods, including all my childhood piano music.

[swan_tower]

Ah -- no, we're on the Peninsula, too. :-)

The flooding didn't get that serious (and fortunately, everything we have in a storage closet down there is at least two inches off the floor). But yeah, I can see being worried about that, especially when you've been through it before.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

up- here in Oregon, we do discuss the snowpack in the weather section of the nightly news. Yes, the rain refilles the aquifers, but the snow, thats the summer water. When its snow season, they even show you the markers for the depth of the snow and where we are at potentially waterwise.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

If I watched the nightly news, I might know more . . . .

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

ahh, there is that, but we so do worship our Rain Gods here..

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh, I do hope we get some, too, though yes, the snowpack is more important. I always check on the snowpack levels (er, when there actually was some.)

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I think I'll be getting into the habit myself.

[spiffikins]

Yes, I'm so pathetically grateful for the rain we're (finally) getting this year, that I have NO COMPLAINTS about the grey clouds and the lack of sunshine.

The storm they are talking about this week, seems to be aiming at the north bay though - not sure how much rain we'll actually get locally in Santa Cruz. Crossing my fingers though.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I hope you got some!

[brooksmoses]

FWIW, this post at Wunderground had a good bit of info on the snowpack levels. Unfortunately, not great news yet: "The only disappointment has been the snowfall totals in the Sierra Nevada. The storms have been very warm and the snow levels consequently very high, generally above the 7,000-8,000’-foot level. In fact, the first week of December has been one of the warmest on record for much of the state with the average temperature running around 10°F above normal." The oncoming storm is forecast to be colder, though.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I certainly saw a few encouraging forecasts for snow out there. (Defining "encouraging" as "sorry to everybody who's being dumped on, but we need it.") Not sure what the actual results were.