The Dry Garden: “a strong La Niña”
Posted on | September 17, 2010 | 1 Comment
The blue purple band in the center is a building La Niña in the equatorial Pacific. Source: Jason satellite/JPL. Click on the image to be taken to JPL's El Niño/La Niña compendium of Jason images.
Autumn and early winter are traditionally considered planting season in Southern California because nature can be expected to cooperate. As days shorten and rains come, seeds germinate, newly transplanted saplings deepen their roots and established plants awaken from dormancy.
Yet not all years are created equal, and this coming planting season has all the hallmarks of a tricky one.
National Weather Service predictions for a La Niña cycle are becoming less tentative and more ominous. That means ocean temperature trends in the equatorial Pacific have shifted to the opposite of last winter — a way that augurs drought.
How dry our rainy season might be is unknowable; this brooding La Niña might even produce a wet year, but the odds are stacked sharply against that. According to Jet Propulsion Laboratory climatologist Bill Patzert, 82% of the La Niñas since 1949 have had below-average rainfall. “Some are way below average,” he said. “This is a strong La Niña. It really tilts the scale. It’s an 80% to 90% probability of a dry winter.”
How dry is dry? Click here to keep reading about predictions for an exceptionally dry rainy season in The Dry Garden in the Los Angeles Times.
Apologies to those who have had trouble loading Chance of Rain. The server has been down.
The life aquatic
Posted on | September 16, 2010 | No Comments
Los Angeles River. Photo: Wikipedia via Flickr. Click on the image to be taken to Wikipedia
Last call for $30 seats for the The Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council September 28th symposium “The science behind the policy: Clean water and natural resources in California.” After September 17th, the price rises to $40. Click here for details. Personally, I don’t understand the logic of the early bird special. If cinemas did that for movies, only well organized people would attend. Then again, the movies don’t have Pacific Institute president and MacArthur Fellow Peter Gleick. Yet. LASGWC panelists also include economics professor Bowman Cutter of the Pomona College and Adan Ortega, former Metropolitan Water District conservation strategist and a memer of the California Board of Food and Agriculture. Environment correspondent Molly Peterson of KPCC moderates.
This post has been updated from a preliminary stub with date and link.
Image of the day: Tired in LA
Posted on | September 14, 2010 | 1 Comment
The week that was, 9/5-11/2010
Posted on | September 12, 2010 | No Comments
At the news conference announcing Susan Kennedy’s appointment as Chief of Staff, Gov Schwarzenegger said, "We have had incredible accomplishments throughout my administration and I look forward to working with Susan to build upon that foundation and make California once again the golden dream by the sea." Click on the image to be taken to the governor's website and the original announcement in November 2005. Kennedy has been the strategist behind Schwarzenegger's failed water policy.
Schwarzenegger, like all of his predecessors except risk-averse Gray Davis, has tried to mediate the water war and will, like them, leave with the big decisions still to be made. — Dan Walters, Governor will pass the buck on water, Fresno Bee, September 5, 2010
Despite more than three years of meetings and studies, the committee working on the plan has come to little or no agreement on any of the big-ticket questions. — Delta talks going on behind closed doors, Contra Costa Times, September 7, 2010
“I don’t think we can wait for all of these processes.” — Attorney Michael Jackson, Latest Delta suit could pack a wallop, Environmentalists sue state, citing ‘public trust’ statute, Contra Costa Times, September 7, 2010
The water table has dropped 115 feet in the last three years — something that in the past would have taken two decades. — “Chinatown II”? Water bank sued as wells go dry, Kern Co. districts, others say deals were illegal, Fresno Bee, September 5, 2010
… it is interesting to see that for all that The State is mistrusted, private corporations are mistrusted even more. — News commentary, On the public record, September 8, 2010
“I don’t know many people that are dumb enough to take on what I’ve taken on.” — Ed Steffani, manager of the North San Joaquin Water Conservation District, Resignation his own choice, frustrated water district chief says, The Record, September 9, 2010
“Water is gold. We want to continue to find ways to clean the water to cut the imported water cost. We need to reduce reliance on imported water from the Bay Delta.” — Rep Grace Napolitano, Federal government awards $600,000 in water grants for master plan, recycled waste water, Whittier Daily News, September 9, 2010
Click here to keep reading ‘The week that was’
The Dry Garden: Orb weavers
Posted on | September 10, 2010 | No Comments
In the oldie but greatie department, The Dry Garden this week reprises a 2005 foray by two leading entomologists through the haunts of the most common garden and household spiders of Southern California. For those who didn’t get snared the first time, and who, like me, love spiders, click here. Or to find Dry Garden events for September, click here. Or for information about the Spider Pavilion at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, which opens September 26, click here.
North American Native Plant Societies
After the lawn
Garden blogs
