Solid.

A cold front swept through Thursday morning around 3AM last night, dropping temps from the low 50s to the low 40s in the period of an hour.  It dropped well over the forecast rain; just under 2/3 of an inch.  Friday cleared after the morning rain, and Saturday, as you know, was a very fine day.  It even felt warm and spring like.  The next system arrived early, with rain by about noon on Easter Sunday.  Again, the forecast was broken, and we again almost got 2/3 of an inch of rain.  That system mostly passed by 6PM.  Low fog and drizzle remain this Monday morning.  We have one more wave to pass through the region later today.  The forecast is for just a few showers this afternoon and evening, amounting to at very most two tenths of an inch.  That will likely be the case, but we have already exceeded the week's total forecast of on inch.  In fact, we are tallying 1.66 inch of rain in the past week.  That is 66% more than forecast.

Cool today for April.  Mid 60s.  In fact, you could feel the cool in the afternoon yesterday.  We went for a quick Pogonip stroll in the drizzle yesterday evening, and it was crisp until you developed some heat of your own.  That continues today, with mostly low clouds.  In fact, it continues through Tuesday morning, until about noon.  Then, clouds should clear to bring about a partly sunny afternoon.  It will be slightly warmer on Tuesday.  As those clouds clear out, it will allow the radiational cooling Tuesday night and we will drop into the mid to upper 40s.  And while Wednesday will be sunny, this will need to be over come to get those temps back up during the day.  Expect another day in the 60s for Wednesday.  We also have another system brushing by to our north on Wednesday, so we see a slight chance for some light rain in the evening.

Calm winters day at Cowell's Beach, Santa Cruz.

Then we have spring arriving on Thursday.  Sunny, warm and developing a NW breeze for the weekend.  It will be in the low 70s during the afternoons, perhaps even the mid 70s for Friday and Saturday.  It should be a nice run of weather, and needless to say, great planting weather for your summer gardens.  If you don't already have your early summer plants, like pole beans and lettuce, in the ground, this will be a great weekend to get that work done.  I was asked by a friend if I though this would be the last rain storm of the season.  With weather being weather, it is hard to tell.  The NPac jet is to remain active, but shift slight north.  Sorry Portland.  But, all it takes is a little wiggle to bring us some more of these spring storms.  Usually, they are not all that cold, or all that strong, so not too damaging to the crops.  Time to get your plants in the ground folks.  Unless, of course, you have a different plan.

No change in the drought over the past week.  I'll keep an eye out for this next week's report, but it does not look like enough, or any, rain is getting far enough south to help SoCal.  They are still in varying levels of drought from Santa Barbara south.  OTOH, NorCal has just broken the record for the wettest season on record.  And what is astounding is that it broke that record in April.  We still over 5 more months in the water year.  And while these tend to be the driest months of the year, we could still a an inch or few more to that total.  Winners.