A quiet and rather dull month - Mother Nature, where's the rain???

There was one nice sunset this month:

Other than that?

1/9
An interesting mid-afternoon sky, this is the same sort of thing as those fiery red and orange sunsets, when the sunlight manages to strike the underside of the clouds thanks to the curvature of the earth, and a break in the clouds over the horizon.
Sun light is bouncing off the ocean just a few miles away, and hitting the underside of the clouds, a different effect than a sunset for sure, still interesting.



I'd hoped this set up would last until sunset, but nope, not happening.

We've had a lot of tule fog, which is unusual here, by the coast. Tule fog is named after the reeds in the marshes in the central valley where it forms, it hugs the ground - this is the stuff that severely lowers visibility and causes massive pile ups on the freeways. It follows the Sacramento river valley, and finds it's way into the bay, and inland valleys.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule_fog

1/15
Low pressure system heading in...
Interesting delicate afternoon clouds.





1/26 No mo' tule fog, some nice sunrise cirrus!



1/27 Low pressure front approaches, no rain it it, but there are some peculiar low level clouds.
Try as I might, i don't know what to call them. They would seem to be formed by....? I dunno what.
They are stratus (which is low)... and they 'undulate', so i will dub them 'stratus undulatus' - correct me if i am wrong, puh-leeze!




http://nenes.eas.gatech.edu/Cloud/Clouds.pdf

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lmk/?n=cloud_classification

An interesting article about water in the west, seeing as we are in drought conditions:

Owens Valley water
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/us/a-century-on-the-chinatown-water-feud-ebbs.html?_r=0

See the movie: Chinatown - You'll be glad you did.

P.S. Monday 2/2
So it's official, SF got *no* rain in January, the first ever rainless Jan., and they've been keeping track since the Gold Rush.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/First-ever-rainless-January-in-S-F-history-6053819.php

And is there much snow in the Sierras?
http://blog.sfgate.com/stienstra/2015/01/24/stienstra-wheres-the-snow-trips-up-norcal-highways-reveal-shocking-images/
Nope.
There is some hope on the way - forecasters are calling for a significant rain even starting this thursday, continuing thru the weekend,
Here's the satellite image:

I'm not holding my breath, there's definitely some moisture there, but this looks pretty disorganized to me. Time will tell - doesn't it always?