89 here today.

I hope you're right, Jeri. Except for two days, it's supposed to climb back up again, but I have to say you win the prize with 94 degrees. It doesn't seem that long ago that your area was damp and foggy for much of the time and you loved it because you couldn't tolerate much heat. How quickly it has all changed.

I've noticed that Pam, mendocino_rose, has not posted for a long time. I'm wondering how she and her roses are doing. Since she's further north I was hoping her water supply would hold out.

90 here today (Zone 9) we are supposed to get rain Thursday (70% - subject to change) .. but I hope my newly planted bare root roses make it.

You all have my sympathies! I hope some rain does come along, and of course that you see a drop in temperatures. Southern California has seen its share of meteorological hard times.

After a worrisomely rainless December and January, and low rain before that in November, here it has been raining, to our considerable relief: perhaps as much as 5" this month. So drought isn't looming quite as large as before. I don't mind spring being shoved back a bit, either.

Temperatures in the nineties in February. That's rough.

YIKES, Jeri. My summer temps hover around 95 ! At least we have gotten enough rain that I don't have to worry about my trees this year.

The normal January thaw lasted about two weeks longer than usual and I think we are going to have an early spring. I've been out weeding and mulching. Some of the weeds are already setting bloom. I doubt if we will have night temps below freezing for the rest of the winter.

Even with enough rain for them to declare this year a "wet" year, they are going to keep us on water restrictions.

It is very unseasonally warm over here too although not to the ridiculous heights I read here from people in SoCal. Nevertheless this is the warmest February I remember. February is usually our coldest month but it has reached 70 degrees these last few days with no rain in sight. Just warm and humid. Being out in the garden in a T-shirt is not something I'm used to do in February. Having both mildew and blackspot attack roses at the same time is also uncommon as is having mosquitoes buzzing around this time of year.

Hey Ingid, I'm so sorry you have to garden in such a hard place to garden with all the heat and hardly no relief from rain. I hope things get better. We are unseasonably warm here as well after teen temperatures or lower twenty, teen with wind chill, we are going to be in the 70's this weekend. My sinuses and allergies are getting the kids and me good. I am looking forward to the warmer weather however and am planning some more much needed weeding. I have also started some veggies indoors. You are in my thoughts.

Alana

If it makes you feel any better I was woken upthis morning in Northern California by the heavy rains and thunder. An inch or more is expected over each of the next three days with some snow possible. The good news is all of this flows south. It is warmer than often but temps in the 30's at night and we've been up to about 61 during the days. Just had some of my son's friends pass through who described a warmer SF Bay Area however, in the low 80s. Not much is budding out yet, but most of the snow is melted off the ground. The willows are showing a little white but not full bloom yet.

I always put Bay Area like we are the only Bay Area in the world and I have corrected myself by adding the SF for San Francisco. It is a very geocentric thing, but that is not quite the right word as it applies to the Solar System. Funny how egocentric and geocentric have the same letters.

Ingrid, I am so sorry the high pressure ridge continues. This is all very unsettling.

NoCal HAS gotten some rain. And the Sierras have gotten some snow. In fact, far more than what was predicted for an "El Nino Year." The High Pressure ridge is shuttling all of the precipitation to the North -- so the PNW has gotten rain, and LOTS of snow. And Sacramento and points North in CA have gotten rain.
Today in our part of SoCal, clouds have rolled in, and the humidity is way up -- it's 67 deg., and 67 % humidity. I can't say it's raining, but if you stand around outside for a few minutes, some very tiny raindrops will fall on you. There's not enough rain even to water plants in pots -- but HEY! At least the sun is not a relentless burning presence.

I looked at the radar for down south and it looks like you should get some rain the next day or so, I hope so!

FINALLY RAIN!!!!

I am glad for a bit of cool and clouds. I'd love some good rain but thankful like Jeri for the break in the heat. Not a fan of summer in February. The heat made all the new growth smaller than usual. The buds look undersized as well. Our forecast was for cool weather followed by another blast of warm southwest desert air early next week.

I don't think that's worse than late snowstorms and freezes but it makes me think we're in for another hot year ahead.

It was 80 degrees F here (Northern SF Bay Area) 3 days ago, but yesterday the clouds did roll in, and by last evening about 5PM it was pouring - really pouring, not just drizzling. All last night it rained - one cloud burst even woke me up, and I could hear hail hitting the roof. All sunny this morning, but everything is sopping wet. Good thing - I had decided 2 days ago that if it didn't rain, we were going to have to turn the irrigation system back on, as there was a lot of new growth which was starting to wilt. REALLY did not want to do that.

Hope some of this got to So Cal - did it?

Jackie

Livermore (land of the perpetual rain shadow...) actually got 0.8 inches out of this, too --- pouring down at one point. I hope it headed south, also.

This morning was 3F in my ice land here, now it's 23F, looks pretty nice outside. Got more than 1' of snow 2 days ago......Taking my lunchtime, checking out the roses online. :-) I can take the cold, won't do good when the temp goes above 80F, that would be burning hot! :-) Make sure you have a hat on under the burning sun. :-)

I understand it rained in L.A. and, Jeri, you should have gotten rain too, but we had almost nothing, just enough to wet the surface of the soil. I'm glad that L.A. and further north finally had rain. At least it is cooler today and tomorrow but it's going back up to the upper 80's after that. There's nothing to do but accept what is, and be very, very happy if the rain ever does find us down here.

Original post needs to have January 16 changed to February 16.

We got approximately 1/3-inch. More significantly, the air has been blessedly cool today. BUT by next Monday, the temperature will again be heading into record-setting territory, and the temporary benefit of one scanty rainfall will be forgotten.

Accd to the paper this morning we got an inch of rain in the 24 hours as of 5PM yesterday. That seems about right. The garden is dripping, and very happy. However, we are still way behind the YTD figure from last year, not to mention the "normal" numbers.

Jackie

We got half an inch here...with no rain chance til maybe the end of the month

We achieved 0.010 inches here. Don't laugh anybody who lives in rainy regions where you'd get that much in the first 30 seconds. I must say though, that most of the roses are showing new growth, and I won't say it's not because of the rain. The abnormally high temperatures are probably also pushing growth. I'm sorry to hear that even in Jackie's area with all the rain they've had it's not up to normal yet. I thought by now it was above normal.

Rain total so far is 95% of normal here (vs 70% where Jackie is). That's good enough for the roses and all the other plants in the yard, which look leaps and bounds better than in the past several winters.

Early predictions were that NoCal would not get much from this El Nino system.

What actually happened, or so it appears, is that the 5-Year High Pressure ridge that has pushed rain away from us has continued to do so.

Soooooooooo . . . That predicted "Pineapple Express" of successive rainstorms has come in -- but has been pushed up and over, dropping some rain and snow in NoCal, and A LOT of it in the PNW.

Meanwhile, we sit here in SoCal, bitterly aware that the 1880's featured a 20-year drought, which ended the cattle-based economy of the Rancho Period.

"The Blob" has dissipated for the most part in the ocean off Alaska. I'm hoping that might change the high pressure ridge stuck blocking So. California rain. Of course, I'm not a meteorologist. Still hoping.

Of course, Jackie's 70% is 70%, or 7 inches, more than our "nearly normal" of 10 inches, to date. It all depends on what you are used to :-). I rolled the dice and did a bunch of native, restoration-type plantings in the wilder parts of the garden this late fall, to replace Mediterranean-but-not-native shrubs felled by the drought (CA summers are dryer than European summers by enough to make a difference when there is a drought). They are going "like gangbusters" (archaic, I know) so far and settling in well -- fingers crossed that at least normal rains continue through the spring...

Teas and Chinas are rushing into bloom, after our recent 1/3-in. of rain. I am determined to enjoy them, since if this summer is as hot as last summer (likely, since we are again getting 95-deg in February) this may be dang near all we get.

Our town of McCloud is at 95% of normal to date at the end of Jan. We got almost 10 inches in Dec and over 12 in January and very little in October & November, a total for those four months of 24.38. Still, the snow is melted in town even though we had a snowstorm Weds. Still, we are better off than last year and the snowpack on Mt. Shasta looks much better.

I remember them measuring the "snow pack" last winter and they were walking on grass! Much better this winter, thank goodness, since the snow pack gives us one third of the water needed in California.

We don't get that snowpack water. Many places in SoCal don't. Our main water source is groundwater. And that is going fast.