Much of California enjoys a mild Mediterranean climate where the weather typically swings like a pendulum from warm, dry summers to cool, wet winters. Year-to-year, this pendulum can swing with great variation. If it doesn’t swing toward rain and snow … Read more
Tag: weather
Field Reports
In Memoriam: Environmental Scientist and Bay Nature Contributor Lester Rowntree
On Friday, August 30, Bay Nature lost a good friend and the Bay Area lost a great teacher of environmental science. Professor Lester Rowntree passed away at his home in the Berkeley hills after a prolonged battle with cancer. Rowntree … Read more
Summer Issue 2015
What Is An Atmospheric River, and How Does One Affect California’s Rainfall?
Current climate change research suggests California’s weather could become even more variable than in the past, a “new normal” of drier dry periods punctuated by wetter winter storms.
Summer Issue 2015
First Person: Watching the Weather with Daniel Swain
Climate scientist Daniel Swain runs the California Weather Blog, a must-read for weather nerds. He’s most famous, though, for something he did almost as an afterthought: He’s the one who gave the name “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge” to the pattern that’s being blamed for our three years of drought.
Fall Issue 2014
Was California’s Extreme Drought Part of Our New Climate Normal?
Was California’s record-breaking 2013-2015 drought a window into the future?
Ask the Naturalist
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?
Ask the Naturalist, Botany
How Are Wildflowers Coping with the Drought?
It’s tough to be a plant when there’s no water! Rainfall is one of the most critical—and most unpredictable—of all the factors that affect wildflower bloom. So how are they coping?
Water
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.
Climate Change
What’s Causing the Dry Weather — And When Will It End?
In the 150-plus years that we’ve been tracking rainfall in Northern California, it’s never been this dry. It was the driest December in many places, and this week’s drizzle wasn’t enough to keep San Francisco from its driest-ever January. And … Read more
The Bay
Mavericks: The Science Behind the Killer Surf
After a forecast of surf swells upwards of 40 feet, the Mavericks big-wave surf competition has been called for this Friday, January 24th. But what does it take to create a monster wave?
