I had plans to get a lot done in the garden this week. Yes, we expected rain on and off but, given our history, I thought it would be mostly off.
 |
| While my backyard was relatively sunny on Friday, December 30th, the view in the distance suggested rain was imminent |
 |
| However, there was little rain until the evening hours of New Year's Eve, when it pounded our roof |
On Tuesday, the forecasters gave us a 15% chance that a "weak system" would deliver a trivial amount of rain, forecast to amount to 0.03/inch. Even mid-morning, when we'd already accumulated a quarter inch of the wet stuff, they were predicting the showers would soon pause before an atmospheric river moved in on Wednesday.
 |
| Yet we were socked in that morning |
 |
| and remained that way throughout the daylight hours |
 |
| The rain continued without a pause and, as evening fell, we couldn't see the lights of the harbor at all |
I can't even remember rain as steady as that we received yesterday. All my rain collection tanks have been full since the minor deluge we experienced on New Year's Eve. I'd already emptied the plastic trugs of the rainwater I'd collected from our rain chain onto soil in the driest areas of my garden but they quickly filled up again.
 |
| As another, bigger storm is on its way collecting more rainwater without a place to store it seemed pointless |
I stopped collecting rain yesterday morning, which is a first for me since the drought was declared and I started actively storing rainwater. Watching all that extra water flow down the rain chain into a drain made me feel guilty. I hope it makes the people in charge of water policy in California feel guilty too. I keep hearing about desalination of sea water as a possible solution to the state's ever-worsening drought but building and operating the plants to do that is extremely expensive and the process itself presents ecological hazards. We've made some inroads in encouraging residents to conserve water (although I think there's a lot more to do there) but rainwater collection and water recycling on a city, community or water district level needs far more attention.
The steady rain continued into the evening hours. I even skipped my neighborhood walk for the first time in over two months. I got very little done in the garden beyond a little pruning here and there before Tuesday's rainstorm, although I finally dug up the 'Lavender Ruffles' Dahlia tuber that produced its last flower for Christmas.
 |
| The size of the clump of tubers offers a clue as to why this particular dahlia was so prolific |
While I relish the rain we're getting, I don't want to ignore the fact that Northern California has already experienced significant negative impacts from the earlier rainstorms, resulting in widespread power outages and flooding. Flood watches and high wind warnings have already been called as the state turns to face the next storm beginning today, predicted to be the strongest of the season. According to the current assessment you can find here, it's also likely to have a much greater impact on Northern California than the southern part of the state.
 |
| We certainly got more than the 0.03/inch forecast for Tuesday. How we'll be impacted by the next storm remains to be seen. |
All material © 2012-2023by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party