It’s dark now, and I found a special comfort once again in the waning light of “sunset”. (As I do whenever I take – or more accurately, allow – the time to notice it.)
Actually the sun has never been visible today, through the fog and rainclouds that have graced the Bay Area recently. “When is this rain going to stop?” a friend asked this morning. Hey, it’s just started. (January rainfall was only about 15% of average, “with rainfall levels across the [Northern California] region the seventh lowest since recordkeeping began in 1850, according to the National Weather Service”. San Francisco has fared a bit better, with precip at about half the historic average.)
It seems rare that people here have an accurate sense of rainfall cycles. Puzzled by rain in March, they’ve forgotten that the rainy season stretches from October to April in Northern California and November to March or April in Southern California. Certain that rainfall is far higher or lower than normal, they forget that around here, normal isn’t normal.
But all that’s gonna change with climate change.
