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2019 California and Southwest Weather Discussion Thread


Thunder98

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No snow on Saddleback mountain, but next storm could bring some.

 

There was a dusting on the very top yesterday according to the webcam up there when I checked it, but looks like it's already gone.

 

I had to edit my total of 0.67" inches yesterday, as when I checked my manual rain gauge earlier today, it showed 0.71" instead. The gauge was empty prior to the start of the storm. A difference that "large" between my gauges is quite rare, I'll have to monitor that during tomorrow's storm.

 

 

 

 

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It's been fairly wet again yesterday and today. .82" so far with a little more before it shuts off.

Looks like another system on Friday that could bring another 1/3-2/3". 

Winter 23-24: Total Snow (3.2")    Total Ice (0.2")     Coldest Low: 1F     Coldest High: 5F

Snow Events: 0.1" Jan 5th, 0.2" Jan 9th, 1.6" Jan 14, 0.2" (ice) Jan 22, 1.3" Feb 12

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Temperatures are interesting to watch this morning. At El Cariso Summit (el. 2666 ft) in the Santa Ana Mountains, they're currently 36F. Plateau near here around 2000 ft is hovering around 39-40F. Here at 1200 ft, it's currently 43F and still slowly falling, despite continuing heavy rainfall. Winds have slowed a bit, but 0.48" and rising at my station.

 

Also we were getting wind chills in the upper 30s an hour ago.

 

 

 

 

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Snow level appears to have gotten down to around 3000 feet in the morning. I only got a high of 49.3 F today, one of the few sub-50F high temperatures I've recorded at this station. This morning's low temperature of 39.4 F was during the rain.

 

Santiago Peak this afternoon:

 

sp-n-mobo-c 22.jpg

 

Mount Wilson:

 

wilson-n-mobo-c 26.jpg

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I'd also like to point out that we've had a higher-than-normal occurrence of abnormally cold winter storms this winter so far. We had a similarly close call back in February, but before that, the last time we had such a cold storm that brought widespread high precip amounts was in February 2011, and December 2008. Some inland areas did get actual snow during the December 2014 event, but that was not as wet or widespread.

 

Other times I recorded sub-50 F high temperatures were 2/8/13 (48.3F), 12/31/14 (46.9F), and 11/28/19 (48.2F). Season totals have already surpassed 2017-18's across most of the region.

 

 

 

 

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Despite all the rain, hills are taking a long time to completely green up here. Not sure exactly how all the dead brown stuff goes away. It must eventually be uprooted by new growth. Hopefully within a few more weeks everything will be completely green, as we have more rain in most areas than last year at time.

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Despite all the rain, hills are taking a long time to completely green up here. Not sure exactly how all the dead brown stuff goes away. It must eventually be uprooted by new growth. Hopefully within a few more weeks everything will be completely green, as we have more rain in most areas than last year at time.

 

They don't usually green this early, except in cases like 2004-05 where the rains started as early as October. But maybe in about a month or two, depending on how things further play out.

 

It's also possible that we get a good wildflower season in Spring, given the cold temperatures so far this winter and it hasn't been dominated by excessively warm, dry high pressure, like in some winters (such as 2017-18). January and February are still ahead, although a pattern of dry Marches prevents me from hoping for that month.

 

 

 

 

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I found a study published about the discontinuity of records and climate differences regarding the move of the official Downtown Los Angeles weather station from DWP site, to the milder USC site several miles to the southwest in 1999. Since the original DWP station is apparently still active, the study compares data and records between the DWP and USC stations from 1999 to 2014.

 

http://scholarworks.csun.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.3/170953/Patzert-etal-CG-2016-p41-52.pdf?sequence=1

 

 

 

 

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That's a good find.  I remember that the autumn after the Downtown LA station moved from the DWP building to USC in 1999, the LA Times published an article noting how much cooler that summer had been than the previous one.  I wrote a letter to the editor suggesting that the station move invalidated this comparison to some degree.  Not only was the letter actually published (my name in the LA Times!  Fame at last!), but they published a follow-up letter a few days later from a NWS representative whose justification -- that stations move around all the time, and the Downtown LA station had moved several times previously -- seemed weak to me.  According to the study you found, it turns out my concerns were justified after all! :)

 

Looks like you were ahead of the curve back then, good that you noticed it so early on. I found another story from JPL/NASA from 2007 about it, as well as a humorous account of it from a citizen in 2008. The disparity in observations from pre-1999 and post-1999 is very apparent when viewing the daily temperature graphs for the station on climatestations.com. I've spoken to the site owner about it, he noticed the same thing.

 

Note the sudden drop-off in annual mean temps. While 1999, 2001 and 2002 were indeed relatively cool years, they were not so drastically cooler as shown now. DWP temps would have been warmer still.

 

lacvannt.gif

 

I put together graphs comparing some years at the Civic Center to the USC site, side-by-side. Note the lack of variability and less prone to extremes the USC station is:

 

comparison 97 01.png

 

 

 

 

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