Drought in Santa Barbara, Feb 2014

As I write it is raining. It has rained more in the last three days than it did in the previous 13 months. Unfortunately that isn’t saying much. We got about 3.3 inches in the last 13 months and about 3.4 in the last three days. That’s a lot for three days, but it still leaves us with only about 6 inches in the last year rather than the 18 we expect.

So right now we are better off than we were a week ago, but we’re still in bad shape.

In addition to the current storm system we also got a little bit of rain early in the month. This was enough bring out a few annual leaves again, storksbills and popcornflowers, but most early bloomers seem to have given up for the year.

Above is a comparison of the Bigpod Ceanothus bloom in 2013 and 2014. In 2013 the hillside was covered in white blooms. In 2014 it was not.

San Roque Creek (beside Jesusita trail) is dry. Normally it has a good flow at this time of year…