Re: OT-CHAT: weather?

We did some checking on rainfall totals for January two days ago.  We were
curious mostly about southern California and the Mojave and Sonoran Desert
(thinking more in terms of winter/spring flowering - which should be
spectacular this year, already starting in some areas).  Anyway, looks like
the coastal side of the mountains is getting good and soaked, and totals we
found were mostly around 7 or 8 inches for January (that's a lot!), some a
bit higher, and some more inland locations (still on the coast side) such
as Riverside and San Bernardino were closer to 5 inches.  We didn't check
totals for December, but it rained like that in December too.  On the east
side in the desert, January totals are hovering around 1 inch, some as low
as about a half inch, a few pushing two inches.  Drier in Arizona (they got
most of theirs in late December it seems).  That doesn't sound like so
much, but for the southern deserts, that's quite a lot for only two weeks,
at any time of the year.  I know a few people who drove west over the
holidays, and the report is that the deserts are as green as they've ever
been - looking more like Kentucky (or any of those other states east of the
Mississippi) in early spring.

We're getting some of the moisture here in central NM too, but not like
California.  I don't even know the totals, but it's been raining
(occasionally some of it is snow at night) pretty much every week, at least
a little bit.  The ground has been moist since sometime in August, and I
know of a few puddles that haven't dried up since October.  That's pretty
unusual for here.  It is usually pretty dry in the fall and winter,
especially in the winter, when the sun is out pretty much every day - all
day.  I don't think it's bothering the Iris or most any other garden
perennials at all, they're probably loving it, but some of the cacti aren't
very happy about it.

It's not so green here yet as in the Mojave, since the nights are still
mostly below freezing, but I'm seeing little carpets of green things
starting to poke up.  In the gardens in town the Winter Jasmine is in full
bloom now (I think the warm days we had recently encouraged them to open
their flowers).  There are some Crocus up and blooming here and there, and
of course a few Dandelions and weedy Mustards here and there.  It's still
winter, but there are little spring teasers all over the place.


Dave

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