digitS'
Garden Master
This map has to do with "anomalies." That is, what is different about the weather over the last 3 months than the averages over the last 30 years. What this map is showing are the anomalies of high & low air pressure.
If it is still out there on NOAA's webpages, there is probably a similar map of how different the spring & summer of 2012 was. It might have things exactly reversed. The big red dot of high pressure in the northern Pacific would be centered over the Midwest and a big blue dot would be over here on the left coast.
The weather here took forever to warm up in 2012 and there was a lot of spring rain. We are really hoping to get some of that spring rain in 2014. There sure hasn't been much winter rain & snow.
You might have thought the high pressure would be centered over northern California, the place that is most effected by drought. No, it doesn't have to be. That big pillow of air in the northern Pacific is holding back storms that would otherwise be bringing rain to California.
I searched around a little this morning trying to see what life is like for people living in the middle of those big dots. You know what? There aren't very many people in either of those locations! Kind of an absence of information for someone just taking a quick look . . .
No set of stats show the whole picture. No term catches all meaning. Does "drought" in Arizona mean the same thing as "drought" in Iowa? How about "drought" on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula? I spent a little time the other day trying to understand what NOAA meant by the word "drought." I couldn't come up with anything! I am sure that somewhere there is an accounting for the facts on rainfall, soil moisture etc., and how they come together in the meaning of "drought." I suspect that the term mostly has to do with precipitation. Rainfall deficits along the northern Pacific coast may result in some real serious loss to native species of plants & animals living there.
Steve
If it is still out there on NOAA's webpages, there is probably a similar map of how different the spring & summer of 2012 was. It might have things exactly reversed. The big red dot of high pressure in the northern Pacific would be centered over the Midwest and a big blue dot would be over here on the left coast.
The weather here took forever to warm up in 2012 and there was a lot of spring rain. We are really hoping to get some of that spring rain in 2014. There sure hasn't been much winter rain & snow.
You might have thought the high pressure would be centered over northern California, the place that is most effected by drought. No, it doesn't have to be. That big pillow of air in the northern Pacific is holding back storms that would otherwise be bringing rain to California.
I searched around a little this morning trying to see what life is like for people living in the middle of those big dots. You know what? There aren't very many people in either of those locations! Kind of an absence of information for someone just taking a quick look . . .
No set of stats show the whole picture. No term catches all meaning. Does "drought" in Arizona mean the same thing as "drought" in Iowa? How about "drought" on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula? I spent a little time the other day trying to understand what NOAA meant by the word "drought." I couldn't come up with anything! I am sure that somewhere there is an accounting for the facts on rainfall, soil moisture etc., and how they come together in the meaning of "drought." I suspect that the term mostly has to do with precipitation. Rainfall deficits along the northern Pacific coast may result in some real serious loss to native species of plants & animals living there.
Steve
While here, the winds were calm with temps. at 45*. So, I decided to divide 4 my 9 rhubarb " Victoria" plants ( a very red stalked variety that has a very pleasant sweet taste in cobblers). I potted them in compost into 1 gal. containers ... 52 of them. I will donate them to the Master Gardeners plant sale this spring. 
