Weather Report, 11/23/10

7:30 pm – the water on the deck is now frozen, and covered with ice. Just about lost it when I stepped outside.

5:00 pm – the temperature is dropping rapidly, it has dropped 5 degrees to 37 just in the last hour and a half. I can literally watch the numbers roll down. At 5:00 pm it was 37.8, and now at 6 pm it is 35.8, er correction 35.5. Thank goodness I have spare propane for both heating systems. I was a Curved Bar Girl Scout, don’t you know!

3:30 pm – first rock/mud slide of the storm hits in Santa Cruz on Highway One and Laguna Rd. NB lane affect. No additional info. Temperature has dropped to 42, again. Be careful out there, and stay warm!

At 10:30 am, it is 44 degrees – a couple of degrees warmer than yesterday. I received .5 inches last night and this morning, bringing the season total to 7.9 inches. I found my older calendars (but now have misplaced the last 5 years – really, I am hopeless) and so will be able to do a 16 year comparison for everyone, soon. Scattered showers have continued all morning, thus far. Also, for those of you, like me, who count on the radar soundings, the radar has been out since 7 pm Saturday night, due to the storms in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Unseasonably cold nights will continue through Thursday night/Friday morning – all nights well below freezing in many areas. NOAA had this to say:

“ANALOGOUS COLD SYNOPTIC EVENT FROM NOV 29, 1975 WAS LOOKED AT FOR COMPARATIVE PURPOSES WHICH HAD LOWS OF 29 FOR SANTA CRUZ…36 FOR OAKLAND AND 28 FOR NAPA. FOR WHAT ITS WORTH THE LATEST MOS GUIDANCE FOR PASO ROBLES (WHICH IS A GOOD PROXY FOR COLD SPOTS IN MONTEREY COUNTY) IS 18 FOR THURSDAY MORNING. 1975 WAS ONE OF THE STRONGEST LA NINA YEARS AS WELL?” (FWIW, I often use the temps in Paso Robles to predict what I will receive here, as I concur with NOAA on this point.)

NOAA also issued a warning that for those vulnerable among us, these continuously freezing nights are life-threatening. Illegal campfires, like the possible one seen last night, are more likely under these conditions. Our homeless are very vulnerable this week.

The CHP is not reporting any problems on Highway One, but I would suggest that those of you who must drive it use extra caution, as I am sure there are rocks everywhere.