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West Coast Thread

PottercountyWXobserver

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thewxmann

thewxmann

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Hi there. Where in California are you at?

 

The weather here is surprisingly varied, though certainly not as exciting as it is on the East Coast. The rainy season's pretty interesting, and is usually when most of the exciting weather happens. If you're staying in SoCal, there is the prospect of the monsoon during summer. Then there's also the Santa Anas and the firestorms.

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PottercountyWXobserver

PottercountyWXobserver

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Where in CA?

 

Steve

 

 

Hi there. Where in California are you at?

 

The weather here is surprisingly varied, though certainly not as exciting as it is on the East Coast. The rainy season's pretty interesting, and is usually when most of the exciting weather happens. If you're staying in SoCal, there is the prospect of the monsoon during summer. Then there's also the Santa Anas and the firestorms.

Hi Steve, Hi wxman! I will be living in the Bay area,  work in Sunnyvale and living in Palo Alto. I'm a huge weather statistic nerd so when I get free time, I'm sure I will be compiling a large list of the bay areas weather. I see you have Berkeley listed in your location, that isn't too far up the road. If all you guys want, we can discuss the west coast weather on this thread seeming how there isn't a dedicated weather thread other than the mountain west. I love talking local weather, so I will be active in this thread to post climate statistics. Since you are a met steve, please post when you can about the synoptic setups as I have to learn the west coast patterns as I'm only versed in eastern weather patterns. Glad to see I won't be as lonely as I thought I was moving out here weather wise!

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PottercountyWXobserver

PottercountyWXobserver

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We've had a Pineapple Express up here the past several days, some of the local ski hills are closed and the avalanche risk is way up there.

Hi Andy! ya I noticed that on some of the latest model runs, and you look to get some more pacific fetch once the trough lifts out again and the flow returns above the building area of HP. It is nice to see some rain working its way into California, might as well get it now while we can before the dry season begins in a few months. Hopefully you post more in this thread so I can get caught up on the local climates here. Where can I find all the weather data for SF and San Jose? How long have they been reporting weather, I'm assuming late 1800s?

post-585-0-06899800-1362551328_thumb.gif

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aslkahuna

aslkahuna

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I'm not living in CA but I was born and raised in the Bay Area lived in Mountain View and the east side of San Jose. When I did a climo data review in 1961, I found the SJSU Library stacks had loads of CA climo info. But remember that most records in the State don't go back much into the 1800's since CA became a state only in 1850. Also for the Bay Area and especially SFO a lot of the climo data was lost in the 1906 earthquake and resulting fires. In Sunnyvale, you will notice that the Coastal mountains (which receive up to 50-70 inches of rain) impose a strong rainshadow so that the valley gets about 15  inches/year. Dense fog is common in the winter, ad the nearby mountains do see snow despite topping out at 4200 ft at Mt. Hamilton home to Lick Observatory. Sunnyvale proper has had the honor (?) of hosting at least two EF2 tornadoes in past years.

 

Steve

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My Weather Today

My Weather Today

Posted
Posted

HYDROLOGIC OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EUREKA CA
329 PM PST THU MAR 7 2013

THIS IS A RETRANSMISSION OF THE HYDROLOGIC OUTLOOK ISSUED JOINTLY BY
THE CALIFORNIA NEVADA RIVER FORECAST CENTER AND THE NATIONAL
WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE IN SACRAMENTO. IT IS FOR THE ENTIRE STATE
OF CALIFORNIA.

..BELOW AVERAGE FLOOD POTENTIAL EXPECTED FOR CALIFORNIA THIS
SPRING...

THE SPRING FLOOD POTENTIAL OUTLOOK IS BELOW AVERAGE FOR ALL BASINS IN
CALIFORNIA.  DRY ANTECEDENT SOIL MOISTURE CONDITIONS AND LOW
SNOW PACKS ARE MINIMIZING THE POTENTIAL FOR SPRING SNOWMELT FLOODING.

MUCH OF THE REGION HAS EXPERIENCED VERY DRY CONDITIONS AFTER A VERY
PRODUCTIVE NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER.  MANY LOCATIONS HAVE RECORDED
PRECIPITATION AMONG THE TOP TEN LOWEST ON RECORD FOR THE COMBINED
MONTHS OF JANUARY AND FEBRUARY.  THIS HAS REDUCED THE STATEWIDE
SNOW PACK WATER CONTENT FROM 134 PERCENT OF AVERAGE NEAR THE START OF
JANUARY TO ABOUT 66 PERCENT FOR THIS TIME OF THE YEAR.

SOME RELIEF OCCURRED DURING THE EARLY PART OF MARCH...MOSTLY IN THE
NORTHERN AND CENTRAL REGIONS OF THE STATE.  HOWEVER...IT WILL TAKE A
SERIES OF STRONG STORM SYSTEMS TO RETURN THE SNOW PACK TO NORMAL
CONDITIONS BY APRIL 1ST... WHICH IS THE TYPICAL TIME OF MAXIMUM
SNOW PACK ACCUMULATION.  IT APPEARS VERY UNLIKELY THAT SNOW PACKS CAN
RECOVER FROM THE CURRENT DEFICIT THIS LATE INTO THE WET SEASON.
NOTE THAT FLOODING COULD STILL RESULT FROM HEAVY RAINFALL ALONE OR
COMBINED WITH SNOWMELT ANYTIME BETWEEN NOW AND EARLY APRIL.

PRECIPITATION...
                      FEBRUARY 2013                 WATER YEAR
BASIN              PERCENT OF AVERAGE           PERCENT OF AVERAGE
UPPER KLAMATH              26                           105
LOWER KLAMATH              41                            79
TRINITY                     7                            68
EEL RIVER                  22                            86
RUSSIAN                    10                            71
NAPA                        5                            85
SF BAY AREA                18                            96
UPPER SACRAMENTO           11                            91
CENTRAL SIERRA             13                            75
SOUTHERN SIERRA            31                            71
CENTRAL COAST
    SANTA CRUZ              5                            68
    PAJARO RIVER            6                            40
    SALINAS RIVER           8                            41
    SAN LUIS OBISPO        16                            73
    SANTA YNEZ              5                            38
SOUTH COAST
    SANTA BARBARA COAST     4                            61
    VENTURA LA COASTAL     12                            65
    SANTA CLARA RIVER       3                            37
    LOS ANGELES RIVER       5                            44
    SANTA ANA RIVER        15                            44
    SAN DIEGO BASIN        24                            60

SOUTH EAST DESERTS
    OWENS RIVER             3                            28
    AMARGOSA                0                            65
    MOJAVE DESERT          25                            53
    MOJAVE RIVER           28                            62
    COLORADO RIVER          8                            89
    WHITEWATER RIVER       29                            33

SNOW PACK...
MANUAL SNOW MEASUREMENTS TAKEN BY THE CALIFORNIA COOPERATIVE SNOW
SURVEYS CONFIRM THAT CALIFORNIA`S MOUNTAIN SNOW PACK HOLDS FAR LESS
WATER THAN NORMAL FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR...
               PERCENT OF AVG SNOWPACK    PERCENT OF AVG SNOWPACK
BASIN                 MARCH 1 2012             MARCH 1 2013
SAC/NRN SIERRA             27                        58
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY         27                        66
TULARE LAKE                34                        60
UPPER KLAMATH              67                        75

RESERVOIRS...
A BRIGHT SPOT IS THAT STORAGE IN MANY OF CALIFORNIA`S MAJOR
RESERVOIRS IS ABOVE AVERAGE AT THE PRESENT TIME...
               PERCENT OF AVG STORAGE
RESERVOIR             MARCH 1 2013
SHASTA LAKE                110
LAKE OROVILLE              111
YUBA-BULLARDS BAR          128
AMERICAN-FOLSOM LAKE       103
STANISLAUS-NEW MELONES     114
TUOLUMNE                    99
MERCED-LAKE MCCLURE         85
SAN JOAQUIN-MILLERTON LAKE  95
KINGS-PINE FLAT             60
KERN-ISABELLA               41

RUNOFF...
CONTINUING DRY CONDITIONS DURING THE LAST 2 MONTHS IS REFLECTED IN
THE MUCH BELOW AVERAGE RUNOFF CONDITIONS FOR FEBRUARY 28...
                     FEBRUARY 2013             WATER YEAR
BASIN            PERCENT OF AVG RUNOFF    PERCENT OF AVG RUNOFF
TRINITY-SACRAMENTO          36                      85
SAN JOAQUIN                 32                      69
TULARE LAKE                 34                      49
UPPER KLAMATH               53                      70

STREAMFLOW FORECASTS...
APRIL THROUGH JULY FORECASTS ARE GENERALLY BELOW TO MUCH BELOW
AVERAGE FOR UPPER SACRAMENTO/WEST-SLOPE SIERRA NEVADA WATERSHEDS IN
CALIFORNIA.  THE APRIL THROUGH SEPTEMBER FORECAST FOR THE UPPER
KLAMATH IS ABOUT 83 PERCENT.


TO SUMMARIZE... THE FLOOD POTENTIAL IS BELOW AVERAGE FOR ALL
WATERSHEDS IN CALIFORNIA TYPICALLY AFFECTED BY SPRINGTIME
SNOWMELT...AS WELL AS OTHER REGIONS IN THE STATE WHERE SNOWMELT IS
NOT A MAJOR FACTOR IN SPRINGTIME FLOODING.

 

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PottercountyWXobserver

PottercountyWXobserver

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Yeah Myweathertoday, I noticed the hydro situation around here was below average. I'm hoping for a few more chances to get some much need precipitation before the end of April, but we will see.

 

I can't find any climate archives for the bay area like I can for Pennsylvania weather? Anybody know where I can find raw data like this for California?

 

 

http://climate.met.psu.edu/data/

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Jim_in_CA

Jim_in_CA

Posted
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Interesting thread!  I too moved out to the Bay Area about a year ago - Mountain View here.  Compared to the East Coast, I love Summers and Springs out here, but miss "proper" falls and winters.  

 

The warm, very dry fall is a bit of a downer, but I'm holding out hope for a wet winter here - we certainly need it desperately after the debacle that was last year.   I hear we need a 120 - 150% of normal runoff year to avoid serious drought.  I have seen a couple of winter forecasts that seem to suggest a dry fall and wet winter - the first is certainly panning out so I hope the second does as well.

 

I will say it was beautiful up at Tahoe this weekend.  The aspens are a bit past peak but there are still lots of bright gold stands.  I also got fitted for ski boots - so hoping for a big year up there too ;).

 

I'll be following this thread closely - you don't see many threads about the west coast on this forum!

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chrisf97212

chrisf97212

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Bend one day in the future.  Did by a property there and will be out again in Nov Dec. 

 

Stuck in VA for now.

 

West Coast boards are very quiet, can check in a few times per year and keep up..

 

East coast has an overload of weather junkies

Bend has some interesting weather.  I think you'll enjoy it. 

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snownut

snownut

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Bend has some interesting weather.  I think you'll enjoy it. 

 

I think the weather in town may actually be boring in a good way? Tired of year round precip we have here.  Of course dramatically different weather and climate types are really close to Bend and that is one of the things that I look forward to in OR.  

 

How long have you been in PDX ?  It is possible we end of near there for jobs and keep a rental /get away place in Bend.  I have read the passes can be difficult at least unpredictable from Nov through late spring because of big snows.  Have you driven the east west roads over through the mountains? If so what is your favorite?

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chrisf97212

chrisf97212

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I think the weather in town may actually be boring in a good way? Tired of year round precip we have here.  Of course dramatically different weather and climate types are really close to Bend and that is one of the things that I look forward to in OR.  

 

How long have you been in PDX ?  It is possible we end of near there for jobs and keep a rental /get away place in Bend.  I have read the passes can be difficult at least unpredictable from Nov through late spring because of big snows.  Have you driven the east west roads over through the mountains? If so what is your favorite?

Bend gets its share of snow in the winter as you probably know.  Thunderstorms in the spring and summer aren't uncommon but overall its a dry climate.  Of the two main highways to Portland, I recommend highway 26 over Mt. Hood as opposed the Highway 22 Santiam Pass.  Its straighter and better plowed but expect traffic delays near the ski resorts.  Either way, Oregon is quick to require chains when the snow starts falling.  You can acess the highway traffic cams at www.tripcheck.com.

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snownut

snownut

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Posted

Bend gets its share of snow in the winter as you probably know.  Thunderstorms in the spring and summer aren't uncommon but overall its a dry climate.  Of the two main highways to Portland, I recommend highway 26 over Mt. Hood as opposed the Highway 22 Santiam Pass.  Its straighter and better plowed but expect traffic delays near the ski resorts.  Either way, Oregon is quick to require chains when the snow starts falling.  You can acess the highway traffic cams at www.tripcheck.com.

 

How much rain are you expecting IYBY this weekend? Looks like good snows in the Cascades this weekend and into next week.

 

Rediculously warm here in VA on this 1st of November with a high of 76 after morning thunderstorms... looking forward to getting into some snow later this month when I head west for a couple weeks.  

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chrisf97212

chrisf97212

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How much rain are you expecting IYBY this weekend? Looks like good snows in the Cascades this weekend and into next week.

 

Rediculously warm here in VA on this 1st of November with a high of 76 after morning thunderstorms... looking forward to getting into some snow later this month when I head west for a couple weeks.  

I got a lot of rain over the weekend.  Bend got a dusting of snow but its gone already.  Looking at the models, the ski resorts at Bachelor and Mt Hood could possibly open this weekend.

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Mallow

Mallow

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Posted

Portland, Oregon here. Looks like it is getting cold next week.

 

Yes!

 

Too bad it's a week early. I'll be visiting my family starting on the 15th. I'm hoping the cold can stay in place east of the Cascades 'til then, and then a nice storm draws the easterlies through the Gorge for a big snow event while I'm there. :P

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