There is an interesting article in today’s Herald about California’s drought. It has broken scores of 160-year-old records. You can find the whole article here: ridiculously resilient ridge

Here are just a few quotes.

“…meteorologists have fixed their attention on the scientific phenomenon they say is to blame for the emerging drought: a vast zone of high pressure in the atmosphere off the West Coast, nearly four miles high and 2,000 miles long, so stubborn that one researcher has dubbed it the ‘Ridiculously Resilient Ridge.'”

“The current high-pressure ridge is even stronger and more persistent than a similar ridge that parked over the Pacific Ocean during the 1976-77 drought, one of the driest in the 20th century.”

“Last year was the driest calendar year in recorded history in California in most cities, with records going back 160 years. The first snowpack reading in the Sierra Nevada earlier this month found a snowpack of just 20 percent of normal.”

The Herald article took me to a California weather blog that is full of interesting information, weather blog including this graphic of the high pressure ridge that parked itself over the Pacific Ocean last year and the first month of this year.

Don’t get me wrong, this weather is better than summer – no bugs! BUT … and this is a big BUT … I am a native Californian, and I reach SS age this year. I’ve seen a lot of California weather. Nothing like this. I have foregone planting new bare root fruit trees and roses. I am debating a vegetable garden this year. My spring is still producing well, but if all the aquifers that must feed it are at 20% of normal, how can my spring be far behind?