Promise Falls As We Usher In The New Season
By: Christina Loren
Saturday, September 12, 2015
The Fall equinox will take place on September 23, at 1:21 a.m. PDT when the sun crosses the celestial equator from north to south. The Equinox signals that the length of day and night on September 23 will be nearly equal, about 12 hours long. Soon after the Autumnal Equinox nights will get longer than days and temperatures will dive down considerably in the Northern Hemisphere. Those who are fed up with the oppressive summer heat will be happy to hear that days will continue to get shorter, hence cooler, as we transition into Winter. There is typically increased moisture in the air in Autumn as storms begin to line up in the Pacific Ocean. California's rainy season begins in October and with a developing El Niño in the Pacific Ocean, higher than average rainfall this year looks quite promising.
Often referred to as 'harvest season' Fall is the time of year when many delicious fruits and vegetables have reached full maturation. These delectable items are ready to be gathered, sold, and stored before damaging frost develops in the cold winter months. Animals also take advantage of the Fall season by building up fat reserves for migration or hibernation. Overall the Fall of 2015 offers hope for ample rain, delightful produce, and cooler weather that we can all look forward to.
Labels: Christina Loren, Drought, El Nino, El Niño, Equinox, Fall, Rainy Season, Season
posted by Unknown @ 12:48 PM,
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What is El Niño?
By: Christina Loren
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
An interesting meteorological phenomenon that dictates weather conditions for a given area is the influence of coastal winds on ocean currents. In the open ocean surface currents are directly impacted by global wind patterns. Simply stated, El Niño describes a change in trade wind patterns leading to unusually warm ocean currents in the Pacific Ocean. This alteration in surface ocean temperature has a tendency to create extreme weather changes, specifically between October through March, with peak conditions from December through February. Some of the impacts typically associated with El Niño are a lack of precipitation for parts of Indonesia and Australia and the development of strong storms packed with ample moisture that tend to aim at California and areas in the southwestern United States. Although these effects are characteristic of a strong El Niño pattern, there is no guarantee that this year's event will produce the flooding rain we saw in 1997-1998 in California. In the same way that no two storms are the same, no two El Niños are the same either. There are other atmospheric variables at play that will likely influence how this year's rain season will pan out. Nonetheless, I would be willing to bet that El Niño will at the very least provide the state of California with average rainfall for the 2015-2016 rainy season.
Labels: Christina Loren, christinaloren, Currents, Drought, El Nino, El Niño, Flash Flood, Flooding, Heavy Rain, Meteorology, Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Weather
posted by Unknown @ 12:27 PM,
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