General Discussion

Last edited Sun Jan 12, 2025, 07:41 PM - Edit history (1)

and topography much different from what occurs east of the Rockies. First is the semi-arid Mediterranean climate: rain doesn't occur during much of the year, and what we do get is much less than the average east of the Mississippi. (I used to give tours in a garden near here - a visiting couple from Kansas refused to believe that we got essentially no rain from May to November.) The further south you go in California the drier it gets. Second, it's full of mountains. There's a large valley occupying the center of the state - which is where much of the agriculture is - but mountains are close to the inhabited areas (why do you think it's called Silicon VALLEY? We have smaller hills here - most under 3000' - but you can go from sea level at the Bay, across the divide, and back to sea level at the ocean in less than 20 miles.) Los Angeles county is more rugged than up here: it's pretty, but there are a lot of small, steep canyons that have to be approached on foot.

Third, California is big. Third largest state in terms of area after Alaska and Texas. The Klamath river, which right-wing "pundits" think could have save Los Angeles county if it weren't for those pesky fish, is in the northernmost part of the state, about 600 miles from the current fires. Even if Newsom dammed the Klamath and wanted to send the water south, the pipeline would have to go over a few mountain ranges, including the Siskiyous.

Fourth, there are the off-shore flows. These are winds that come from inland, rather than from the ocean as they usually do. This means they blow over dry inlands, losing more moisture as they go. They're fast and they're hot - they've been called hurricanes without the rains. Here in the Bay Area we're having these offshore winds right now, and it's warm and dry. Luckily, we had a fair amount of rain in December; the Los Angeles area is way below average for rainfall this year because this type of weather pattern pushes the moist air up north towards Oregon and Washington.

Can we do better? Probably. But current building standards are based on the old normal, and that's changed in the decades I've lived here and it's going to keep changing as long as we keep encouraging unlimited population growth and use of fossil fuels.

Now I'm going outside to take advantage of the weather to get rid of weeds - or at least reduce them. A pox on whoever thought it was a good idea to bring oxalis to the Bay Area.