On Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at 1:23:07 PM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at 7:37:34 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Sunday, January 8, 2017 at 1:59:35 PM UTC-8, wrote:
But the entire state is on a flood watch.

But the riding will undoubtedly be marvelous this spring with new growth everywhere and the old dead growth knocked down by the heavy winds and water soaked root systems.

The hills will be alive with plants and animals everywhere. The bird watchers made a count a week or so ago and I'll be seeing one this coming weekend to see the results among other things.

Since I saw a wolf on Mt. Hamilton and all called me a liar since there are no wolves in California they have a bit of egg on their faces discovering that there have been wolves spotted in several other places in California. There really are no such things as "lone wolves". These are very temporary. The Alpha Male or head wolf will evict the male pups from the pack after a couple of years when they get large enough to be a possible threat to his dominance. So seeing one wolf insures that many others are near.

The rivers even close to the cities are now turning up river otters. Naturalists are sort of confused about them. They only recently (relatively) discovered that sea otters are absolutely necessary to grow the kelp forests that grow the large diversity of sea creatures and other flora that maintain the health of the coastal waters. Now since river otters had disappeared so long ago the reappearance of them gives them pause. They do not understand what part they play in the ecosystem. They are still struggling with beavers as an absolute necessity as well.

If you LOOK while you ride it is amazing the things you can see. Now is only one of these reappearing animals will control the almost uncontrollable Crow and Raven populations.

This morning I looked up the present seasonal rainfall, the normal for this time and the seasonal normal.

The season begins Oct 1, so we are presently a quarter of he way into the yearly measurement.

Northern California has about their seasonal max.
The bay area about one and a half times the season to this date normal.
Central California has between one and a half and twice season to this date normal. Some locations have hit their seasonal max.

It is predicted to rain steadily for the next two days and then we'll have a week's break where I can quickly get some riding in so all of my muscles don't atrophy.

Two days of rain! My God -- how do you endure! I rode in the rain on melting ice/snow slush this morning. I'm riding on CX tires, which are lousy on pavement because they squirm -- but they are better than studs, which ride like tank tracks (or at least my cheap ones do). Tomorrow will be sheet ice, and I'll drive-skate to work. I look forward to getting back to my rain tires when the ice/snow finally goes away. I would never not ride because it is raining (and above freezing -- I draw the line at freezing rain). I just put on different clothes.

Well, you're welcome to come to California and ride around these drivers anytime.