Exploring Nature in the San Francisco Bay Area

The Fish We Never Knew

The Galapagos damselfish exists only in the specimens collection at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, the victim of an unusually strong El Nino. Thoughts on the fish, and its lessons in a changing world.

The Beauty of an Atmospheric River

The forecast calls for big rain this weekend from an "atmospheric river," a plume of moisture stretching thousands of miles across the Pacific and splashing onto land right smack on the Northern California coast.

Crowd-sourcing the Weather

Today, the online weather forecasting site Weather Underground is launching a new crowd-sourced forecasting system that creates custom forecasts for thousands of personal weather stations across the country, including dozens in the Bay Area.