Author: Trudy Hibler

I remember last year and how we had just a handful of frost nights. Here it is 2022 and every morning so far has been a frost night, at least at the colder locations. That’s 18 days in a row. What a difference a year makes. I don’t see much change in this pattern through…

November 17, 2022 Temperatures are around a degree or two warmer than yesterday, hovering in the comfortable low to mid 60s. the environment out there is slightly drier than it has been due to the Santa Ana winds in southern California the past couple of days. More on this in the frost discussion below. Also,…

November 17, 2022 The Santa Ana wind configuration weakened overnight, but not before the strong off shore flow lowered dewpoints somewhat, mainly in Kern County. Even north of Kern County, dew points are a few degrees lower, allowing subfreezing temperatures in more areas than previous nights. As of 5:30 this morning, coldest locations were down…

November 16, 2022 Santa Ana winds continue to buffet the Kern County mountains. These winds have been leaking downslope off  the Tehachapi Mountains all day. At the bottom of the Grapevine, winds were sustained at 20 mph, gusting to 35 as of noon. At the top of the Grapevine, winds are out of the northeast…

November 16, 2022 The current altimeter reading at Salt Lake City is 30.58 inches of mercury while at LAX the current pressure is 30.19. That’s almost a .40 difference from one location to another. This is a large difference and is the main cause of the Santa Ana winds in southern California. Occasionally, these winds…

November 15, 2022 Temperatures are generally 1 to 3 degrees warmer than 24 hours ago and are generally in the upper 50s to the lower 60s at midday. The air aloft, though, is still pretty chilly as the freezing level earlier today taken over Oakland was just 7,400 feet. The low freezing level is primarily…

November 15, 2022 Yet another chilly morning with temperatures generally in the low to mid 30s throughout the citrus belt. Skies are mostly clear and there is less fog this morning than we’ve seen for a while. A very weak upper low is situated just off the central coast this morning and is slowly moving…

November 14, 2022 The fog that developed this morning, mainly towards the western and central portions of the valley, has dissipated. We will have to play the cat and mouse game with the fog again the next few nights. Otherwise, skies in the valley at midday are generally clear. There is a weak upper low…

November 14, 2022 There is quite a bit of fog this morning, mainly along the west side of the valley stretching from near Lost Hills on the south to north of Los Banos on the north. The remainder of the valley has patchy fog, but is generally mostly clear. Upper level high pressure stretches from…

November 13, 2022 Temperatures as of midday are running anywhere from the upper 40s to the mid 50s. it’s also somewhat breezy along the west side. The Lemoore NAS, for example, is reporting winds out of the north/northwest sustained at 17 mph. Most of the rest of the valley floor has light and variable winds.…