A rather dry but interesting month......

No discussion, let's get right to the images

Winter is gearing up.

"Long ago in the north

Lies the road of emergence!

Yonder our ancestors live,

Yonder we take our being.

Yet now we come southwards

For cloud flowers blossom here

Here the lightning flashes,

Rain water here is falling!"

—Tewa song

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopi-Tewa

They lived in the desert SW, an area that has seen rain fall a 1000 years ago, and then wither to nothing.

I reference the much famed Chaco Canyon here.

Water is the shaping geologic force, not just here, but over the whole planet.

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

Dark clouds blanket Bay Area but fail to drop rain due to phenomenon called 'virga'

http://www.sfgate.com/weather/article/Virga-San-Francisco-Bay-Area-rain-weather-forecast-12342122.php

Here's a shot i took in Nevada 9 years ago of virga - it's to the left of center, kind of like a lock of hair.

It falls from the cloud, never reaches the ground.

Of course there's always some nice cirrus, no matter the month.

And there's always something atmospheric struggling 

to get over a 2400+ ft mountain to my west, be it fog:

Or a full fledged storm system:

Impending is a nice description of some skies:

The first wave of the 'pineapple express' blew in last week. My, my, my!!

What a blast! "Jumpin jack flash, it's a gas, gas, gas".

This is the series of storms that hit the west coast last week,
sort of like a boxer landing a series of punches:

Yosemite is always beautiful, even if the view makes you chilly.

(Not my image below)

Needles to say, skiers are thrilled.

I am a transplant from the east coast and am quite glad to live in Ca.

where snow is optional - if you want some you can always go to the mountains.

Or live by the coast where a good raincoat is a necessity, but a snow shovel?

You'd never need it.

Stop back in next month, winter is just getting started, 

i got plenty of space on my camera chip a-waiting!

Rain has pretty much become history til late fall...

Never the less, an interesting month

One last gasp of rain, Thursday 6/8.

The afternoon before, you could see it coming, at least I could from my north-facing windows.

And after the rain passes thru....

6/16 Sunset!

6/19

We are thru about three days of what has been billed as a massive heat wave thanks to a hi pressure dome in the desert SW. One AM sunrise, some moisture from another system managed to sneak in, create some semblance of what photographers call 'popcorn skies' which got lit by rising sun red/yellow light.

What can I say but "MAH-VELOUS"!

Since then? Pretty boring, just blue skies from horizon to horizon.
I'll be watching the NWS forecast:
http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=MTR&issuedby=MTR&product=AFD&format=CI&version=1&glossary=1

... in hopes of taking in some Marin Headlands fog.

Winter storms, Part 2

Here's the rest of my March- April- May images, 

everything from feathery cirrus to snarling anger

Summer is here if i can look westward from my fifth floor breezeway, and see a blanket of fog thick enough to slide over the peak of Mt Tamalpais (2400 ft/elev. +/-) only a few miles from the ocean.

And windy? OMG, as fog burns off the warmer air rushes inland.

No mo' rain 'til October - next post? Probably foggy - the images, i mean - 

not the text, that will be coherent.

Winter rains are over!

March and April have been interesting months, storms have been getting progressively weaker, moving thru faster, and now it is over. The Sierra snowpack is awesome, reservoirs are even letting some water go for fear there won't be enough space to take in the melting snow. I read something about how some Tahoe ski resorts are thinking they can stay open all summer. I've taken almost 300 shots of the aerial festivities I've been treated to, edited them down to 15 - which is enough for two posts.

So in no particular order, here's the take:

 What are these odd horizontal strips about? I have no idea except to wonder.

Title for the above? "Orphan cloud"

Judy Garland would like this one.

I think Jeff Beck has done a marvelous rendition,

I'm sure you can find it on youtube.

Stop in again in a couple of weeks for part two of March/April images.