Do we underestimate and downplay how Great Sacramento weather really is? (Los Angeles: avocado, farming)

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by tstieber

Interesting to see the real feel temps. Did you guys see reports about all the massive flooding all over San Diego County yesterday? It was intense. It was just pouring rain for about 5 to 6 hours straight, close to 3 inches at the airport and 4 inches at Point Loma. The forecast was way off on this one, and we had entire neighborhoods flooded, along with freeways totally submerged. So many freeways were totally closed for the afternoon commute, it was a mess. Looks like El nino is maybe coming to fruition after all. California is looking for more big rainstorms next week after a nice lull this weekend

Wow, that sounds bad, how's your street, any flooding? Are you ok?

From the NOAA Hydrology site:

Precipitation to date: Jan 22, 2024

Upper Coastal NorCal
Crescent City: 38 inches
Eureka: 22.24 inches
Ukiah: 17.49 inches

Sacramento Valley
Redding: 14.42 inches
Red Bluff: 8.87 inches
Sacramento: 8.48 inches

Central Sierra
Blue Canyon/Tahoe: 26.09 inches
South Lake Tahoe: 5.20 inches

San Joaquin Valley
Modesto: 7.73 inches
Fresno: 2.67 inhces
Bakersfield: 2.47 inches

Coastal SoCal
Santa Barbara: 8.15 inches
Long Beach: 4.27 inches
San Diego: 5.06 inches

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Wow, that sounds bad, how's your street, any flooding? Are you ok?

From the NOAA Hydrology site:

Precipitation to date: Jan 22, 2024

Upper Coastal NorCal
Crescent City: 38 inches
Eureka: 22.24 inches
Ukiah: 17.49 inches

Sacramento Valley
Redding: 14.42 inches
Red Bluff: 8.87 inches
Sacramento: 8.48 inches

Central Sierra
Blue Canyon/Tahoe: 26.09 inches
South Lake Tahoe: 5.20 inches

San Joaquin Valley
Modesto: 7.73 inches
Fresno: 2.67 inhces
Bakersfield: 2.47 inches

Coastal SoCal
Santa Barbara: 8.15 inches
Long Beach: 4.27 inches
San Diego: 5.06 inches

By the way, I'm seeing substantially higher rainfall totals in all of those cities, I think your numbers must have been a day or two behind despite the stated date. The site I go to seems to be a little bit ahead. I think you can add one or two inches to pretty much all of those totals right now.

Anyway, thank you for checking on us. We are totally fine, but luckily our neighborhood is elevated, so rain runs down the hill from where we are. Also, on this rain event, the heaviest rain occurred in areas that normally tend to get lighter rainfall, so we did not even get the worst of it. We've had worse in our neighborhood. But it was still pretty intense, easily a top 10 day out of the last 10 years. Did you see some of the flooding on tv? It was all over the national news. Of course, the San Diego River tends to have some flooding every year in Mission valley, but the streets and parking garages around there are specifically built for that overflow, so it's more of a novelty. This year, it was the extreme levels of flooding in so many different areas that was unprecedented. Entire neighborhoods were under several feet of water, multiple freeways around the county were completely shut down and looked like Rivers. I don't think we'll ever see anything like that again in my lifetime. I think it was actually the third or fourth highest daily rainfall total ever recorded at the airport! And ask for that amount of rain falling within 6 hours, it was a 1 in a hundred year event.

[mxcolin]

Spent the whole week in the south. Rained every single day. Spent the previous week in SoCal. Was warm for 3 hours out of 24. Always a relief to know things haven’t changed :-)

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by mxcolin

Spent the whole week in the south. Rained every single day. Spent the previous week in SoCal. Was warm for 3 hours out of 24. Always a relief to know things haven’t changed :-)

Do ya still think NorCal doesn't have a wet winter?

Most of this rain came in just 2 months, or in just 60-70 days
There is a reason why NorCal sends water to SoCal and not the other way around.

Upper Coastal NorCal - Jan 22, 2024
Crescent City: 38 inches
Eureka: 22.24 inches
Ukiah: 17.49 inches

NorCal - Sacramento Valley - Jan 25, 2024
Redding: 15.51 inches
Red Bluff: 9.32 inches
Sacramento: 8.76 inches

NorCal - San Joaquin Valley - Jan 25, 2024
Stockton - 7.15 inches
Modesto - 8.00 inches

Central Cal - San Joaquin Valley - Jan 25, 2024
Merced - 6.43 inches
Madera - 4.09 inches
Fresno - 2.79 inches

Central Cal - Coastal Valleys - Jan 25, 2024
Salinas - 4.15 inches
Paso Robles - 9.02 inches

SoCal - Jan 25, 2024
Bakersfield - San Joaquin Valley - 2.61 inches
LAX - 5.65 inches
Fullerton - Orange Cnty - 3.42 inches
Oceanside - Border of Orange and San Diego counties - 5.62 inches
Ramona - 4.87 inches
Riverside - 2.72 inches

Data from the NOAA Hydrology website.

[mxcolin]

In relation to SoCal yes it is wetter. If that is someone’s sole frame of reference. From a wider perspective, no, not even slightly. If you visit the rest of the country it’s plain to see. If one never leaves California or never has then that argument could be made. 5 days in the South. 5 days of rain.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by mxcolin

In relation to SoCal yes it is wetter. If that is someone’s sole frame of reference. From a wider perspective, no, not even slightly. If you visit the rest of the country it’s plain to see. If one never leaves California or never has then that argument could be made. 5 days in the South. 5 days of rain.

Agree. We are very myopic here in California. It's the same in Australia. People there think Melbourne has this harsh four seasons climate, but compared to most places in the world, it's a dream. If all you know is 10/10, then 9/10 seems terrible! In general though, you would be hard-pressed to find a lot of people agreeing that Mediterranean climates are wet climates.

The real source of our water supply isn't even the rainfall. It's the snowpack in the Sierras and the runoff we get from that. That's our winter refill, and then it goes into our reservoirs for storage. Hardly any part of California would survive those long, dry seasons without water storage.

[mixxalot]

nice break from rain and damp cold windy weather. Should be warmer for a few days then another cold arctic blast is predicted to drop morning lows to 30s!

[mxcolin]

Originally Posted by tstieber

Agree. We are very myopic here in California. It's the same in Australia. People there think Melbourne has this harsh four seasons climate, but compared to most places in the world, it's a dream. If all you know is 10/10, then 9/10 seems terrible! In general though, you would be hard-pressed to find a lot of people agreeing that Mediterranean climates are wet climates.

The real source of our water supply isn't even the rainfall. It's the snowpack in the Sierras and the runoff we get from that. That's our winter refill, and then it goes into our reservoirs for storage. Hardly any part of California would survive those long, dry seasons without water storage.

What you said.

[mxcolin]

Originally Posted by mixxalot

nice break from rain and damp cold windy weather. Should be warmer for a few days then another cold arctic blast is predicted to drop morning lows to 30s!

At the same time it will barely get above 55 in LA and it will be snowing in the south. Frigid in the North East. All relative. But yep. While I’m asleep here it will be in the high 30’s.

[Chimérique]

I'm not saying a Mediterranean climate is a wet climate in general most people already know that, rather I'm saying a Mediterranean WINTER often is wet. Although having a WET WINTER is one of the key characteristics of Mediterranean Climates.

Rainfall amounts in just 60-70 days listed below is definitely considered wet, regardless of comparisons.

Upper Coastal NorCal - Jan 25, 2024
Crescent City: 38.61 inches
Eureka: 23.15 inches
Ukiah: 18.07 inches

NorCal - Sacramento Valley - Jan 25, 2024
Redding: 15.53 inches
Red Bluff: 9.34 inches
Sacramento: 8.76 inches

NorCal - Coastal & Coastal Valleys - Jan 25, 2024
Santa Rosa: 18.70 inches
San Francisco: 11.58 inches

TS, California's natural aquifers and ground water is also a real source of water, which primarily comes from rainfall, and most of them are in Northern & Central California accounting for sometimes 40-45% of California water, not just from snow melt and artificial manmade dams/pipelines/acqueducts in the Sierras and the Central Valley. If SoCal wants more water take it from where you live, or from the Ocean in SoCal, don't destroy Northern and Central California's natural habitats.