I’m writing this on Feb. 2, Groundhog’s Day, and here in the
South Valley, the winter rains have given the hills of the Diablo
Mountain
I’m writing this on Feb. 2, Groundhog’s Day, and here in the South Valley, the winter rains have given the hills of the Diablo Mountain
Range an emerald-green carpet. Looking out the window at this moment, I see the tree outside bearing white blossoms.
On this first week of February, much of the nation is still encased in ice and snow. I spoke to my friend Mary on the phone last night who mentioned that her daughter in Maine had told her the weather was warming up a bit on the East Coast.
“Oh yeah? What’s the temperature back there?”
“Nine degrees now,” Mary said.
“Nine! What was it before?”
“Four degrees.”
As a native Californian, I’m a wimp. I moan and groan when the thermostat gets into the 40s. That’s virtually a tropical balm for the folks in other states of the union. Indeed, California is paradise. Our weather is why, the myth goes, everyone wants to live out here in the Golden State.
The south San Francisco Bay region’s blessed climate is due to several factors. Most of the year, a mountainous volume of air called the Pacific high pressure system sits along the coast, forming a meteorological wall that prevents strong storms from reaching the area.
In the winter months, this slips south toward the equator, letting in colder storms from the Gulf of Alaska.
The heating of California’s Central Valley also plays a role in creating the temperate climate. As the great valley east of the Diablo Range heats up, its air expands, thus dropping its pressure. When this pressure drops below that of the Pacific high pressure zone, nature — abhorring a vacuum — moves air from the Pacific Ocean to the Central Valley to equalize the pressure.
Think of this effect much like a pair of bellows pulling in air as it opens. It’s nature’s way of inhaling and exhaling.
This effects causes air to stream over thousands of miles of cool ocean water, lowering its temperature. When the marine air reaches California, it serves as a natural air conditioner for the Bay Area. Often, this water-laden air condenses along the coast, creating those fog-bound mornings infamous in the summer months in nearby Monterey and Santa Cruz.
The effect is particularly spectacular when the air rushes through the straights of the Golden Gate. The masses of land on both sides of the entrance to San Francisco Bay funnels the marine air and condensing it even more. This creates the eerie fogs that provides such beautiful visual effects as it covers the Golden Gate Bridge and the rest of the city.
One reason the South Bay area where we live doesn’t receive this same thick fog is because of the redwood trees overing the Santa Cruz Mountains on the west. Millions of years ago, during the days of the dinosaurs, the redwood trees evolved their needlelike leaves to gather the moisture in the air.
These needles are a very efficient collector of dewdrops, gently catching water from the low-lying fog clouds coming in from the Pacific and dripping the life-giving H-2-O down to the ground below. The redwood needles are a vital component of the ecosystems of plant and animal life that depend on these giant trees for their existence.
I read somewhere the needles of redwood trees in the Santa Cruz Mountains collect far more moisture for the forests over the span of a year than the heavy downpours of rain from the seasonal storms. I believe it. I’ve walked through these forests on mornings with heavy fog and wished I had brought an umbrella because the drops were coming down as heavy as rain.
Everyone wants to know what the weather will be like tomorrow, but how about in 50 to 100 years from now? Scientists at the University of California in Santa Cruz believe it will be a lot warmer in California.
In a paper to be published June 7 in the Geophysical Research Letter, they describe how the climate will change as carbon dioxide levels rise to twice the levels of pre-industrial times.
Using advanced computer modeling tools, the scientists forecast green-house effects caused by more carbon dioxide in the air will increase California’s average temperature significantly — by as much as 11 degrees in some regions of the state.
This extreme spike in temperatures will result in severe heat waves and droughts for future generations of Californians. If the scientists model is correct, global warming can ruin much of California’s agriculture.
It might very well cause famines and great stress upon the natural environment. Political battles will result as water because an increasingly precious resource. The cost to society will be high.
Perhaps 50 or 100 years from now, the great-great-great-grandchildren of Punxsutawney Phil — the world’s most famous groundhog — will peak out of their burrows. And they’ll see the world’s climate altered significantly. These changes will be caused by the long shadow of more than two centuries of burning fossil fuels.
Instead of six more weeks of winter, those ground hogs might predict a very long, hot and dry summer.
Martin Cheek is the author of ‘The Silicon Valley Handbook.’
