Personally, I'm ready for these winter storms to be over. Everything is getting off to a super late start this spring and the forecast isn't looking warm and sunny like it usually is this time of year. Just more rain and wind...

Jubaeopsis had to be propped up with some rocks today. Going to need some stakes to get it stabilized. 

I feel it... The new plantings I started in the ground last Spring are barely alive and it pisses me off that this was the year that had to follow. I've put in so much effort, just to try and get them through to stabilize in time for another winter. Ugh. 

By the way, my weather station has recorded 41" of rain since October. 

I would instantly be worried about a gopher . 

It’s a bummer, and we’ve had the coolest winter I can ever recall. Everything is waiting for the warmth.. but we did need the rain bad.

Also next winter is back to El Nino so it should be dry and warm and the east coast will get the cold instead. We need the rain while we can

2 hours ago, bruce Steele said:

I would instantly be worried about a gopher . 

No gophers here, thankfully. Just saturated soils and strong winds. 

 

2 hours ago, enigma99 said:

It’s a bummer, and we’ve had the coolest winter I can ever recall. Everything is waiting for the warmth.. but we did need the rain bad.

Also next winter is back to El Nino so it should be dry and warm and the east coast will get the cold instead. We need the rain while we can

Fingers crossed! 

3 hours ago, BayAndroid said:

I feel it... The new plantings I started in the ground last Spring are barely alive and it pisses me off that this was the year that had to follow. I've put in so much effort, just to try and get them through to stabilize in time for another winter. Ugh. 

By the way, my weather station has recorded 41" of rain since October. 

Tell me about it. I planted a handful of 1 gallon plumeria this summer (normally they get through winter just fine at this size.) But this year I pulled most up and brought them inside bare root to dry because I started losing so many to rot. Luckily, my established plants are ok, for now...

6 hours ago, enigma99 said:

It’s a bummer, and we’ve had the coolest winter I can ever recall. Everything is waiting for the warmth.. but we did need the rain bad.

Also next winter is back to El Nino so it should be dry and warm and the east coast will get the cold instead. We need the rain while we can

Hi Derrick do you have a source for that?

Although I’ll still take anything the NOAA says with a grain of salt as they predicted a warm and dry winter and were as wrong as possible. 
We needed the rain but at this point it’s excessive and sad as most is running off into the ocean anyway. The state needs to create more reservoirs to retain the water we do receive for sure.

There is a 70% chance of el nino but it could also go neutral. Or be a weak el nino.. depending it could affect the outcome drastically.

But with a la nina, the polar jet will really hammer the west coast, which is why we had so much cool weather along with the atmospheric rivers.

With el nino the polar jet goes east, which is great news for going palms on the west coast. Too soon to tell how wet it will be, but I really believe it will be drier than this winter

Edited March 22, 20233 yr by enigma99

I think El Nino correlates with wetter winters in California, and La Nina correlates with drier.  I think this winter has been somewhat weird in that our heavy rains have occurred without eastern Pacific warming (El Nino). 

19 minutes ago, awkonradi said:

I think El Nino correlates with wetter winters in California, and La Nina correlates with drier.  I think this winter has been somewhat weird in that our heavy rains have occurred without eastern Pacific warming (El Nino). 

That is correct... In a "typical" warm ENSO cycle, CA -and most of the Southern U.S.- would see a wetter winter.  But,  like pretty much anything else, that isn't the case for ~every~  cycle..  We've seen plenty of dry  El Nino winters, and wet  La Nina winters.

ENSO is also just one factor that can influence global weather patterns and this year,  other major things helped cancel out the "anticipated", dry La Nina signal.

Global Oscillations responsible for the big time, repeated blocking in the Arctic over North America, which forces the focus of storm activity into the mid- latitudes, has played a significant role in driving most of the storm activity in the West this year.  Until that relaxes / a major flip in the global pattern occurs, this pattern will continue.

On a side note, we're in the minority as far as experiencing a persistent, wet / abnormally cool pattern as compared to many places across the globe right now.. Australia, most of eastern / Southern Asia, South America, and Africa ( S. Africa esp. ) have been experiencing some pretty incredible heat anomalies lately..   We'll get in on this soon enough..










As mentioned, it will be interesting to see what things look like once next winter is underway..  Could definitely be another wet year since El Nino favors that,   ..or, we could experience another one of those warm / dry El Nino winters. 

...Be prepared for either outcome.

6 hours ago, James B said:

We needed the rain but at this point it’s excessive and sad as most is running off into the ocean anyway. The state needs to create more reservoirs to retain the water we do receive for sure.

This. 
 

Can’t teach stupid as they say. 
 

-dale 

16 hours ago, Josue Diaz said:

Personally, I'm ready for these winter storms to be over. Everything is getting off to a super late start this spring and the forecast isn't looking warm and sunny like it usually is this time of year. Just more rain and wind...

Jubaeopsis had to be propped up with some rocks today. Going to need some stakes to get it stabilized. 

Killer front yard. Rocks-agaves-palms medley has always been my goal.

Now I'm obsessing which yellow flowering tree to get that will play nice with my palms. Just ripped out an invasive Africa Sumac, which was not being a nice neighbor to my Jubea.

Christopher

1 hour ago, Billeb said:

This. 
 

Can’t teach stupid as they say. 
 

-dale 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sites_Reservoir

1.8 million acre ft. It's a start, need a lot more

42 minutes ago, Christopher Dillman said:

Killer front yard. Rocks-agaves-palms medley has always been my goal.

Now I'm obsessing which yellow flowering tree to get that will play nice with my palms. Just ripped out an invasive Africa Sumac, which was not being a nice neighbor to my Jubea.

Christopher

Thank you! Really went hard with the agaves and aloes after diving head first into palms. Have you looked at Handroanthus? I have a yellow flowered H. umbellata that just started blooming last year. 

1 hour ago, Billeb said:

This. 
 

Can’t teach stupid as they say. 
 

-dale 

California has plenty of reservior storage.. No need to create more since  building 10,000 new  dams, just to please people who feel entitled to abuse a resource that has always been in short supply  ...in an arid climate,  won't do much when -what it takes to fill those dams-, doesn't  fall from the sky over the course of several years..  Anyone who has studied ecology and hydrology is already well aware of how "the gears" work. Those who stare out the window from their arm chair,  see it raining and wonder why every drop of  that water isn't instantly being captured?, perhaps not so much.. Fact.

Anyone who daydreams of living among a landscape that is always lush, warm, and wet,  should move where that is possible.

By the same token, cultivation of water-intensive crops, in areas that lack adequate resources to support them, needs to be outlawed.  Plain and simple.
 

1 hour ago, Josue Diaz said:

Thank you! Really went hard with the agaves and aloes after diving head first into palms. Have you looked at Handroanthus? I have a yellow flowered H. umbellata that just started blooming last year. 

Is the Handroanthus Umbellata the same as the Yellow Trumpet Tree {Tabebuia Caraiba} ?

Coming up empty with the nurseries here in San Diego. Yet intrigued!

1 hour ago, Silas_Sancona said:

California has plenty of reservior storage.. No need to create more since  building 10,000 new  dams, just to please people who feel entitled to abuse a resource that has always been in short supply  ...in an arid climate,  won't do much when -what it takes to fill those dams-, doesn't  fall from the sky over the course of several years..  Anyone who has studied ecology and hydrology is already well aware of how "the gears" work. Those who stare out the window from their arm chair,  see it raining and wonder why every drop of  that water isn't instantly being captured?, perhaps not so much.. Fact.

Anyone who daydreams of living among a landscape that is always lush, warm, and wet,  should move where that is possible.

By the same token, cultivation of water-intensive crops, in areas that lack adequate resources to support them, needs to be outlawed.  Plain and simple.
 

I feel the min we can do as homeowners is collect as much water as we can for the summers. Just one morning from a storm in early March completely filled a 50 gal barrel.

Now I need a bigger boat..

1 hour ago, Silas_Sancona said:

By the same token, cultivation of water-intensive crops, in areas that lack adequate resources to support them, needs to be outlawed.  Plain and simple.

I'm less inclined to use such a blunt tool as outlawing particular crops.  Pricing water differently can achieve the desired goal of reducing water intensive crops in areas that have tight supplies.  I know in the past you have mentioned reading about water rights laws in the western US, so realize the complexity of the issue.  The big one on the table right now is obviously addressing the Colorado River rights.  I don't want to get into a political discussion of which water rights should take precedence in that case so will simply point out that whatever the outcome, it will probably change the way that other water rights are adjudicated in the west.  It could set the table for other changes in the future.

Back to the windy day, Josue sorry to see this about your Jubaeopsis.

19 hours ago, Josue Diaz said:

Jubaeopsis had to be propped up with some rocks today. Going to need some stakes to get it stabilized.

Hope it pulls through okay! 

4 minutes ago, Christopher Dillman said:

I feel the min we can do as homeowners is collect as much water as we can for the summers. Just one morning from a storm in early March completely filled a 50 gal barrel.

Now I need a bigger boat..

Yep, that right there is looking at an easy solution to help the garden irrigated..  Installing metal roofs, to increase how much water can be collected during rain events, when an old shingle-type roof has exceeded it's life expectancy,  and re-designing concrete surfaces like driveways, etc  so runoff an percolate through / ..any runoff that might not soak down through is directed to planting areas are some other things that anyone can do / have done to reduce dependence on city- provided water.

" Cutting Curbs " ...something done in Tucson to allow runoff flowing down the street to flow into front yards... should be something which is implemented in many more areas..  When redesigning older infrastructure / building new, street and parking lot islands are designed so runoff will flow into / collect in them, rather than keep water from accessing them because they higher than the grade of the parking lot .

As far as metal roofs go, our landlord installed one on his office when he had both done ( his office and the house we're in ).  While we haven't had a ton of rain from any events that have occurred yet, when i go over there to clean up the yard spaces, it is easy to see the increase of runoff that has occurred because of installing it. Will be interesting to see the amount of runoff generated come summer when we get actual downpours. Keep telling him he should have put one on the house here, lol.  New neighbor is planning on installing metal when they redo their roof in a year or so. She is also ripping out all ..or most... of the concrete,  and installing pavers so water can penetrate / having the landscape designer design channels to direct any additional excess runoff into both the planted areas in the front / back yards..

 

I see downtown LA is already on almost 22 inches of rainfall for 2023 so far now. How is that even possible!? Even LAX is approaching 19 inches as well now too. That is more than I had in the whole of 2022 here. I mean we're not even a quarter of the way through this year yet. What is LA's wettest year on record? This surely must be the wettest start to a year there at least? 19-22 inches of rainfall in less than 3 months would be ridiculous and record breaking for me here, let alone in sunny LA.

51 minutes ago, UK_Palms said:

I see downtown LA is already on almost 22 inches of rainfall for 2023 so far now. How is that even possible!? Even LAX is approaching 19 inches as well now too. That is more than I had in the whole of 2022 here. I mean we're not even a quarter of the way through this year yet. What is LA's wettest year on record? This surely must be the wettest start to a year there at least? 19-22 inches of rainfall in less than 3 months would be ridiculous and record breaking for me here, let alone in sunny LA.

After our current storm LA is probably around 25” now. I’m 50 miles East and we are closing in on 30” here. It would take a major and sudden to keep it from hitting potentially 40” by May based on our current trajectory. The question remains is this part of a new and larger trend?

5 minutes ago, James B said:

After our current storm LA is probably around 25” now. I’m 50 miles East and we are closing in on 30” here. It would take a major and sudden to keep it from hitting potentially 40” by May based on our current trajectory. The question remains is this part of a new and larger trend?

...Report back on that,  ...in 10 years, lol

Josue sorry to see your Jubaeopsis in that state. In my new place we seem to be positioned better and have a bit more protection from high winds vs my previous place where my feather palms would always look blasted heading into spring. Last night was a bit nasty though. We were seeing sustained winds of around 20 mph for a few hours with some gusts around 35 or so. 

14 hours ago, James B said:

After our current storm LA is probably around 25” now. I’m 50 miles East and we are closing in on 30” here. It would take a major and sudden to keep it from hitting potentially 40” by May based on our current trajectory. The question remains is this part of a new and larger trend?

There's another "big" storm headed for the bay area on Tuesday. We'll see... I wonder if I will get to 55"+ this year. 

GFS ground level temps April 8 at 5PM

Amazing how daily temps can continue to be 10-20 degrees below average. No warming in sight

It's been typically windy here - one day last week we had 30 mph sustained winds with 40 mph gusts.  All my newly planted palms are staked down to prevent leaning but I saw some strange wind damage on a Livistona nitida frond yesterday.  Looks like someone cut a frond down the middle with a knife all the way down through the petiole!

On 3/22/2023 at 3:12 PM, Silas_Sancona said:

California has plenty of reservior storage.. No need to create more since  building 10,000 new  dams, just to please people who feel entitled to abuse a resource that has always been in short supply  ...in an arid climate,  won't do much when -what it takes to fill those dams-, doesn't  fall from the sky over the course of several years..  Anyone who has studied ecology and hydrology is already well aware of how "the gears" work. Those who stare out the window from their arm chair,  see it raining and wonder why every drop of  that water isn't instantly being captured?, perhaps not so much.. Fact.

Anyone who daydreams of living among a landscape that is always lush, warm, and wet,  should move where that is possible.

By the same token, cultivation of water-intensive crops, in areas that lack adequate resources to support them, needs to be outlawed.  Plain and simple.
 

They're tearing a lot of the dams down in far northern Ca. I think it's a mistake. The fish ladders were not designed well, but I don't think they've looked too deeply into what designing one well might mean. In a perfect world it would help the salmon, but it's not perfect anymore- too many people and farms. Too much silt build up. Too much nitrogen built up in the summer. I don't think tearing them down is going to help summer flows much. When there is a drought they won't be able to release anything to cool the river water for the salmon or enough for the people and still keep the rivers intact, and we have a very low population compared to the rest of the state. Most people are on wells. I suppose we will find out one way or another.

Edited March 28, 20233 yr by Lyn96

That is a very nice front yard. Yup, I'm over it too. Frosts for weeks on end up here and I'm tripping over sown flats and heating pads all over the place indoors. I haven't even sowed everything yet. I bought into the false spring we have up here every Jan or Feb and went overboard..

On 3/22/2023 at 5:18 PM, UK_Palms said:

I see downtown LA is already on almost 22 inches of rainfall for 2023 so far now. How is that even possible!? Even LAX is approaching 19 inches as well now too. That is more than I had in the whole of 2022 here. I mean we're not even a quarter of the way through this year yet. What is LA's wettest year on record? This surely must be the wettest start to a year there at least? 19-22 inches of rainfall in less than 3 months would be ridiculous and record breaking for me here, let alone in sunny LA.

Southern California has always been a boom-and-bust rainfall region and there are usually multi-year below-average periods (the longest recorded being seven years from 1944-1951) broken by one to several years of high rainfall. The highest rainfall years (over 30" in a season) in L.A.'s recorded history (note that rainfall totals here are measured seasonally as July-June):

1883/84  38.18"
2004/05  37.25"
1889/90  34.84"
1977/78  33.44"
1940/41  32.76"
1982/83  31.25"
1997/98  31.01"

After the long series of droughts (simultaneous with decades of intense population growth) culminating in some dire emergency measures in the 1970s, it was truly a miracle period of rainfall that started with the 1977/78 season. And I remember that '82/'83 winter in particular...Dr. George Fischbeck, who was an iconic L.A. TV meteorologist, raving about it in his trademark ebullient style...meanwhile I was a student at UCLA at the time and riding my bike to campus every day during that winter along dangerous Wilshire Boulevard, under the notorious 405 freeway interchange, many lanes across with cars going every which way and buses belching black smoke in my face as I changed lanes...plus rain! Sometimes you look back on your youth and wonder how you got through some of these things.