January 2014 ends as the driest January ever with a total
rainfall of .06 inches. In addition January's average daily high temperature
was 62.71 degrees F. This is almost 7 degrees warmer than the January average
of 56 degrees F. In addition there were 30 days in January where the high
temperature exceeded the all-time January average of 56 degrees F. Note all the
temperature data I'm using is from the San Francisco International Airport.
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| A weather modeling computer at the National Weather Service displays the high-pressure ridge that stretches from Mexico to Canada. (Photo by Liz Devitt) |
A drought emergency has been declared for the state of California. With February approaching, no significant rain is predicted for the near term. A high pressure ridge has been parked over central California blocking all Pacific storms from California into Oregon.
This looks bad and nobody really can explain it. Considering
the earth's weather and ocean current patterns are interconnected, any
abnormality anywhere on the planet will have an effect on the entire system. It
may appear as localized as here in Northern California but it's a system wide
phenomenon.
So one may ask about the abnormal phenomenon happing around
the globe and its relationship to our local drought if any? I can think of a few things that may seem
unrelated, but who knows? Since March 2011 radiated water has been leaking and
flowing into the Pacific from the Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. There is much misinformation on this and
wild speculation, no reliable data seems readily available. I point this out
because Japan and California are interconnected by the Pacific Ocean. There is
a local disaster in Japan, how are we impacted, I don’t believe you can say not
at all!
Next we have the Sea Star Wasting Syndrome affecting the
entire west coast. This extent is troubling many scientist as it is
unprecedented. Also there is a drastic
decline in sardines and an increase in anchovy’s. Some speculate this is part
of a natural ocean cycle but again the interconnectedness of all things
suggests there could be a link. Related
to that is the large influx of squid that happened around the Bay Area earlier
this year.
So although these items may not be related or responsible
for our dry weather, it’s worth asking questions and probing deeper. As Bob Dylan sang years ago, “There’s
something happening here but you don’t know what it is, do you Mister Jones?”
