Ask The Naturalist: How Will the Drought Impact Amphibians?
Question: Will newts, frogs and salamanders be out in full force in the Bay Area this spring?
Weather
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.
Who’s Suffering, Who’s Not as Drought Stretches On
As drought stretches on in California, local plants and animals are falling back on their evolutionarily honed behaviors for outlasting the dry.
Winter Fog Brings Quiet Beauty to Bay Area Parks
With all the cold and moist days we've had lately, it's the perfect time to experience winter's tule fog, a different variety than summer's ocean-borne type.
West Coast doesn’t have hurricanes, it has the Pineapple Express
A geologist reminds us that a "Pineapple Express" could do just as much damage here as Hurricane Sandy did back East.
If Acorn Woodpeckers are Busy, it Might Mean Rain is on the Way
Would you believe that acorn woodpeckers have the most complex social relationships of any animal with a backbone? One expert says so. Watch the birds for a while, and you just might agree!
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.
What Makes a Sea Breeze Blow in the Summer?
Summer is the season for sea breezes in the Bay Area, and no one knows that better than the kite-boarders, windsurfers, and sailors who ply the Bay every chance they get.
With Rain Comes Life, and Death
After three years of drought, the forecast for a wet El Nino winter this year is welcome news indeed. Unless you're an oak or tanoak tree. Researchers fear a wet year could mean an epidemic spread of sudden oak death (SOD). But a new preventive treatment and easy precautions could help contain the disease.
Record Spring Rain, 2006
All that springtime rain may seem a distant memory now, but the record still holds: San Francisco had the rainiest March on record, and the city’s season-to-date rainfall is 12 inches above the norm of 22 inches. What effect did … Read more
