A boring month? Not really, no....

I took in some marvelous fog, at the end of the July 4 weekend:

....but I'll save most of it for a while, hoping for a bit more in the next month, kind of a 'summer's end fog wrap up', so to speak/FWIW.

I thought July would be a boring month for skies, but no, it was not.

A few weeks ago, on the 7th, I spotted what i am pretty sure are 'mammatus' clouds, which are usually associated w/ storms/rain.

But there was no rain here.

The week leading up to the 21st-22nd there had been a low pressure system hanging out over the ocean, spinning (sucking?) in subtropical moisture ( low pressure systems spin counter clockwise hence the southern/warmer/moister air), which has actually produced some rain. Not much mind you, nothing to quench the drought, but it has brought with it a few mildly interesting skies.
I heard that in SF there was actually a bit of rain. And in Santa Rosa ( north of here, by 20 miles ) there was bit of rain. But just a bit.
Here in San Rafael there was about enough to get the street wet, underneath the canopies of trees? it was dry.
Overnight, things really happened, thunder, lightening & thunderstorms.
Comments I read at the SF Chronicle website seemed to indicate there had not been rain in July, or a storm like this in decades. In the Sierras there can be rain/thunderstorms thanks to the elevation of the mountains, but not here in the lowlands by the coast.
At 7:30AM i heard a growing rumble of thunder, louder and louder, until there was a thunderclap that sounded more like an explosion, it shook the building and my chair, just one big bad pulse. BANG!
The skies were awesome.

A few hours after this blew thru? You'd never know it had happened.

The same upper level low pressure system that created the recent thunderstorm has stuck around and made for partly cloudy days all week. This AM, i was treated to a rather nice sunrise:

I found some good discussion thanks to the NOAA:
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?zoneid=CAZ006

http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=MTR&issuedby=MTR&product=AFD&format=CI&version=1&glossary=1


Here's the NOAA talk, a bit technical, but if you can see through that, very interesting:
(even though in ALL CAPS!)

DISCUSSION...AS OF 3:10 AM PDT SUNDAY (7/27)...CHALLENGING FORECAST THIS
MORNING...MAINLY DUE TO SUBTROPICAL MOISTURE STREAMING ACROSS THE
AREA AND THE POTENTIAL FOR CONVECTION.

A STRONG UPPER HIGH REMAINS CENTERED OVER THE SOUTHWESTERN CONUS
WHILE A WEAK UPPER LOW IS LOCATED WELL OFF THE CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
COAST. IN BETWEEN THESE TWO SYSTEMS...SOUTHERLY FLOW IS ADVECTING
MID AND HIGH LEVEL SUBTROPICAL MOISTURE NORTHWARD ACROSS
CALIFORNIA. A WEAK SHORTWAVE TROUGH EMBEDDED IN THE SOUTHERLY FLOW
HAS BEEN TOUCHING OFF SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS OFF THE CENTRAL CA
COAST OVERNIGHT. KMUX RADAR ALSO SHOWS SCATTERED HIGH-BASED
SHOWERS...MAINLY OVER THE COASTAL WATERS. THERE IS CONSIDERABLE
DRY AIR BENEATH THESE SHOWERS AND SO PROBABLY NO MORE THAN
ISOLATED SPRINKLES ARE REACHING THE GROUND.

7/27 4 PM in San Rafael - *nothing* happened. What-do-you-fucking-know!
NOTHING!

-----------------------------
Soooo... how's that drought thing going? Not so good. In fact, it continues, it sucks, and I shower once a week.
This could be a false alarm, or it could be the beginning of something really nasty.
It is said that the Anasazi lived and survived in the SW deserts a thousand or so years ago because it was wetter then, they could grow crops. That changed, and they disappeared. What will become of us?

I did a darkroom montage print many years ago that ends up being about that, though i wasn't quite aware of it at the time.

At the right/top, some native american ruins just north of Flagstaff AZ. They blend in to the facade of some deserted buildings in a recently 'lost' desert town, at the left ...
Easy come, easy go?
I dunno.

What do you think?

http://www.sfgate.com/outdoors/article/California-drought-fuels-unusual-mountain-events-5634582.php

http://news.yahoo.com/water-levels-nevadas-lake-mead-drop-low-221400840.html
best part of this is the comments section - definitely check it out.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/California-drought-As-land-sinks-farmers-5649466.php

Summer, fog!... a bit of cirrus... NO rain!

There has been some notably strange cirrus lately!

But from now until October the only sky story here will be 'fog'.

One of my favorite shots of fog, above - it's just trying to form, and make it's way in, to the shore. This how the fog is, always coalescing, and trying to move in, over the hills....

 ...thru the bay, whatever niche it can find to exploit, it will do that, have no doubt about it. It can also burn off just as fast, be a fleeting occurrence, as cool air hits a coastal bluff.



On another note, perhaps next winter will give us a big change-up.

Early signs point to a strong, disruptive El Niño:
(but it depends upon who you listen to!)

'Whales and fish are showing up in odd places, nesting pelicans are in dire straits, and experts are increasingly convinced that this will be a significant event.
June 15, 2014 by Pete Thomas
http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/nature/post/early-signs-point-strong-disruptive-el-nino/
----------------------

http://theweek.com/article/index/263398/the-return-of-el-nio

( notice that the web person can't spell 'el nino' right, but hey, WTF, the link works.)
-------------------------
As for the drought?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/21/us-usa-california-drought-idUSKBN0EW00D20140621

http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_24993601/california-drought-past-dry-periods-have-lasted-more

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/16/california-drought_n_5340596.html

http://www.sgvtribune.com/general-news/20140627/california-drought-blankets-entire-state-el-nino-forecast-dims

I keep reading (or should i say 'clicking upon'?) so many california drought stories that are all the same. All created to make you 'click' you to a page that has advertising, which gets monitored, and bills the advertisers accordingly.
According to your(our) clicks.
This is not news, it is commerce.

I was here ( living in SF) for the last El Nino event - winter, '97.
It rained cats, dogs and other small mammals. And maybe even some larger mammals, if you get my metaphorical drift.
It was "big time bad ass just when you hoped it might end it didn't and set off every car alarm in the neighborhood".
That bad, yes.
We need mo' of that.
------------------

There are lots of less noticed by-products of the drought, here's just a few:

http://news.yahoo.com/california-tule-fog-becoming-increasingly-rare-photo-123716141.html

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/California-drought-helps-coho-salmon-migration-5576280.php

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/California-drought-for-salmon-more-at-stake-5318815.php

----------------------------------

This is an old link, but well worth a click, fog in the Grand Canyon,

Check out this majestic and rare site at the Grand Canyon over the weekend:
http://www.livescience.com/41633-grand-canyon-fog-photo.html

http://travel.yahoo.com/blogs/compass/grand-canyon-gets-rare-visitor-massive-fog-203931729.html
For the second time in recent days, the canyon experienced an inversion, where freezing fog and clouds filled the gaping divide, acting like a lid.

12 awe-inspiring Grand Canyon views
Sunset.com
Published 12:18 pm, Thursday, November 7, 2013

http://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/12-awe-inspiring-Grand-Canyon-views-4964512.php

-----------------------------
June 25 - it's actually cloudy, quite cloudy by 4PM.
Will anything actually come of it? Guess who is not holding his breath?
Nothing happened.
The next AM, on my walk to the bus, the sky was like this, rain? zilch!



---------------------------
A couple of good educational links for ya:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lmk/?n=cloud_classification

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

I'll be back next month, hopefully w/ some new stuff... if not, previous year's fog will suffice. Really, it will. :-)