For us in the valley (san joaquin) it is moderating nightime temps. We would normally have nightlime lows at 37 or 38. With the cloud cover, nightime lows are hovering at 40 and 41. Of course, daytime temps are kind of low though (45 for a high). It rained like no other all day yesterday and the day before. Its supposed to continue raining until next week.

On the plus side, we are getting the much needed rain in our resevoirs and a bigger snow pack in the sierra nevada.

It's been raining up in N CA also. We sure need it after last year. This is a cold rain. We live less them 15 mi from where it's snowing. Mt 2 DGD are pouting because they want snow. It's nice to look at but I hate driving in it. Most people in CA don't know how to drive in it.
Donna in cold, rainy Orland

I saw a few snow flakes in Sacramento yesterday at lunch time... Nothing stuck of course. We've had a little over 13" of rain in our gauge this season (as of 6PM tonight); the average for the Sacramento Airport is 19.87", but we live about 30 miles away at the very base of the Sierra foothills, so we usually get a tad more than the official totals.

Mike

I'm overjoyed with the rain. Sure it's been nippy but not like last year. Last year I lost so many plants to the dry conditions and frost. I already see signs of my bulbs sprouting. Sure to be a magnificent spring :-)

I love the rain up here, but it warms the cockles when I hear about SoCal getting some much-needed wet stuff. Hope all the folks in the burn areas are staying safe. An even wetter storm is on tap for you guys on Sat.-Sun.

I'm regretting what I was thinking the other day - "At least there's no wind." We have a wind advisory today from 4am-4pm! I jinxed it! LOL

Brenda

What's wild is that it's coming from every direction..north jet stream is sucking in pineapple express from the south..the results are strange..Lows in the mid 40's..highs in the high 40's,low 50's..no frost at all on the flats..up in the hills(hills,not mountains!)..some snow stays all day.
Los Angeles, one weather service claimed,had more rain in the last three days then they had all of last year in total.
Already the bay area is six straight days of rain and maybe four more to come.

The intensity of the rain last night was a little much for my garden. Because I have clay under the whole yard, too much rain over a short period of time means that certain areas lose their drainage and my xeric plants get very unhappy. I was out at midnight trying to create drainage channels for 3 different beds. Only one lavatera was damaged so far, but the real test will be if plants start showing stress from lack of oxygen at the roots.

We had very little rain overnight (Jan 24-25), only a few sprinkles, in Temecula. Today has been mostly sunny. "Wacky" isn't a word I'd use to describe winter storms.

It's wacky IMO when we have tornadoes, avalanches and hail.
It's also a rather common expression obviously ccroulet you don't get out much.

We have had more then 3" of rain in the rain gauge in just the last 3 days. It's been so cold and rainy out in the back yard that nobody in our family wants to go out to empty the gauge, even if it is on the back porch. We just keep looking out the window to see how high it is. DH thinks it will overflow before anyone goes out and gets wet. Our yard is getting waterlogged even if it is mostly a sandy loam with rocks and gravel mixed in. We usually have good drainage but the soil has had no time to dry out. It has been rainy or foggy for too many days, I forget the last really nice day.
Donna in Orland

Gobluedjm, you have no idea how much I get out. California storms frequently produce hail. Several tornadoes are reported in the state every year, particularly in southern Calif. We had one in Temecula a couple of years ago. Avalanches are not weather phenomena. "Wacky" implies something very unusual, something unexpected. These manifestations of winter storms in California are typical and expected.

ccroulet-that's your opinion and you are entitled to it and I absolutely refuse to argue about words I use or meaning of expressions that are quite common that you apparently don't "get".

Someone must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. I am surprised that someone on this forum would flame another poster. This is usually such a friendly forum. I think "wacky" is a fine word to use to describe our weather. Let's not be so picky. I enjoy this forum because it is friendly, like the WS and Cottage Gardening forums. Their is no excuse to flame a fellow poster. It's bad manners.

But it's so fun playing with fire!

On a more serious note.

Our weather right now might be "normal" by local standards - this weather doesn't seem terribly remarkable to me - but when you contrast what is normal here to the rest of the country, it seems very strange. Los Angeles has a tornado frequency on par with the great plains but no fatalities because they are never worse than F2. During an average rain year, we might have many relatively small storms or just a few really big storms. Some storms come through and drop copious amounts of moisture, but you can watch upper level lows roll through on infrared satellite imagery while we see no rain or sometimes even clouds.

Ryan

I learned a while back that there is nothing so strange as the weather. I personally am enjoying this wacky weather since it's re-hydrating my gardens so wonderfully well. We still don't have streams flowing, but today I bought a rain gauge that will hold up to 5"-- extreme optimism on my part.

Two days ago snow on the hilltops,this morning a low of 56!..that's 14 above average.56 is our July nights. Topped out at 64. Wacky squared..

Wacky is the word! We have had some snow around outlying areas; just enough to make a tiny snowman between a couple whose pictures made it into the paper, it is so unusual. We have cold, hard rain during the winter here in Northern CA and some few minutes of hail once in awhile, but nothing like this! I only hope we have a lovely, warm spring and a good summer.

This morning my 5" rain gage has overflowed. It stopped raining this morning so I was able to go out and empty it. Our seasonal creek really looks like a raging river today. It is usually dry, some of the water from Stony Creek was diverted into the Hambrite(thats the creek that goes through our property)to prevent flooding in town. Now my DGD want to go fishing in the creek. It's much too dangerous. The water is deep and swift. I told the girls to stay away from the creek. They are old enough to know to stay away.
Donna

It was a nice sunny day about 60 degrees until 2pm when it got cloudy quickly.
The subtropical moisture they predicted has arrived a couple hours ago and it is pouring even in the mtns in socal.
A small area on radar near Big Bear is showing snow.
We need the moisture so bad but not rain in the mtns.
I feel for the people in the foothills and in the downstream areas because of the snow now melting and runoff.
I emptied my gauge yesterday with 4 inches since last monday. There has been a steady stream down the side of street since Monday and if it were 3 feet deep I don't think you could swim against it.

I think we all go a little wacky when the rains come in Cali. It seems to sustain us, at least spiritually, through the long, dry seasons. For us plant lovers, it splashes the palette of our spring gardens with possibility.

For now, as I'm missing my garden after a week of rain, I'm resorting to looking out and taking notes - "Remove that fallen branch, prop that plant back up, clip off those dead, sodden blooms..." I dash out, feet sticking in the mud, make my (quick) rounds, then return to wait. But I know the rains will eventually stop, and most of the plants will be all the better for it. And so will I! :D

Brenda

A request. When reporting your weather conditions at least say what county you live in. It does no one any good to know such and such happened somewhere in California.
Anyway, here in north Orange County we got more than the predicted amount of rain from the first storm a few days ago, 2 inches according to my rain gauge, but so far from this second storm we only got half an inch instead of the predicted two to three inches. Looking at the doppler radar it looks like the bulk of the storm bypasses us to the south.

1.17 inches so far, starting about 8 PM last night (Jan 26). Temecula, Riverside Co.

The weather report says rain, but we haven't had any since about 1AM. I think the storm is farther south. Weather report says snow late tonight, Fat Chance of that!
Donna in Orland, Glenn co.

It's pouring in Temecula (4:30 PM, Jan 27).

My soil is now fully saturated. Using hoses and brooms to try and get as much water out as possible. I hope the resivoirs get recharged, but I'd be happy to see no more rain for a week or so.

Well, the 2-4" of rain predicted for Sacramento this weekend didn't materialize (at least at my rain gauge). We received a little less than an inch.

Like dicot we have very heavy clay soil here in Folsom, but we've planted everything in raised beds to protect the root crowns from drowning.

I went out today during a break in the drizzle and found that I could push a 1/8" stake into the clay over 2' deep (by hand). That's what I call saturated!

Mike

I just did Mike's test with 1/4 inch stake by hand and easily went 20 inches in a raised bed.
Emptied the rain gauge bringing the total since June to 12.5 inches and more than half of that was this past week here in NW LA county.

Raining again...

9 straight days of rain in the S.F. bay area's eastbay. Enough rain to wash away the famous beaver dam.Nobody knows if they survived,poor guys.

South San Jose reporting in.
We had very heavy rain on Friday, but it cleared out and Saturday was almost nice. Not too sunny, but mild and almost balmy. I took the opportunity to get out in the garden. Spent an hour or 2 pulling all those little weedlings. They are loving all this moisture and they come out soooooooo easily with the soft ground. The Tidy Tips and Lupines have just about taken over the median strip and the TT's are budded. The Ceanothus are all budded and just a dab of color on 'Dark Star'.
Washed my muddy fingers and took a stroll around the back yard. Couldn't resist doing a little pruning on the Clematis (despite my better judgement...) as all the buds are swollen to the max; some even had leaves already. Sure hope it doesn't decide to freeze again. Some of stakes were leaning because of the soggy soil and wind, but they were easy to drive in again.

Sunday.....so much for the break. Rain back in full force and wind. Weatherman said showers on and off, but we didn't get and "off" and it poured most of the day. Put on the Gortex and went driving/hiking around Chesboro Dam/Uvas to see if any newts were out. Guess it was raining too hard for them too. Only found 1 and he was smashed on the road.
Snow on the hilltops in front of my house this Monday morning. Supposedly a break this afternoon....we'll see.

I sure feel for those folks north of SF that are getting all the flooding, but it is nice to get some rain.

wanda

My new rain gauge went in to the ground on Saturday afternoon, and it says we've had 3/4 of an inch since then here at the ranch in the foothills east of Clovis/Fresno. And, it's raining as I write.

BIG winds last night. I'll need to do a tour later to see if we had any damage.

Here in NW LA county another half inch last night. Sun has been out a little this morning. Sure am glad to see it.
Lawn is squishy and the beds are very soft.
Some power outages and flooding in areas and my phone is still out.

My Birds of Paradise are very young so I'm a little worried about them.
Ceanothus Concho is still blooming along with the Bush Germander, salvias, erysimum and cape honeysuckle.
Everything seems to be fine but I know and bad effects may not show for a while.

Snow on Mount Hamilton near San Jose..that's about a mere 2,000'. Here in the eastbay lower elevations seasonal lows of about 42.This whole winter has been about average to above average lows and below average highs..with alot of cloudcover. The ferns look great!

Yesterday was a breathe of spring, today Napa is back to cold and wet. Thankfully the rivers and creeks seem to be taking it ok. I want spring NOW!

Penny

Very heavy frost this morning here in NW LA county. Probably the heaviest all winter. Expecting it again tomorrow with high winds also.
LA county co-op extension site states the average last frost date for LA county is Jan 28, but I get the colder temps in winter so is later.
Possible more rain for the coming weekend.

gobluedjm: Is that the date for your area or for downtown LA? LA County covers a wide range of conditions. I don't know if "NW LA county" means Santa Clarita or Gorman, but those areas are going to be different than the USC campus (where "downtown" LA's weather is now recorded). Knowing that you're interested in climate and weather, you would probably be interested in the website of the Western Regional Climate Center, where they have historical data for dozens of sites in SoCal.

Here in the Redhawk area of Temecula, in sw Riverside Co., it was 43 this morning with no frost. We've had some light frost this winter, but we've been lucky to not have a freeze -- yet!

I stated I know my date is later. Jan 28 came from the link below

Here is a link that might be useful: LA county