Drought Emergency

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.

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?”