Rain, Rain, Please Come Again, Any Day

Yeah, yeah, everyone talks about the weather, but these days when you're talking small with friends and neighbors, it's not really about the weather. It's about the rain. And its total lack. And how, even though we are into the new year, there still is that "wait-wait" look and feel of November: the anticipation of those winter storms that will clean out the air and the streets, perk up the plants and make going to the matinee on a dreary, wet afternoon great fun.

Oakland registered just shy of 4 inches of rain for 2013 (the Gobi Desert averages 7.6 inches). Typically, the annual rainfall for Oakland is somewhere around 23 inches. So that's a big gap, from 4 to 23 inches. That's even too big for grade inflation to disguise.

For 2014, who knows? The Old Farmer's Almanac is predicting January to have 8 inches of rain; it also predicted 2 inches in December and we got slightly over 1/2 inch, so don't go hunting for the umbrella quite yet.

Even though we can talk about "average" annual precipitation, the Northern Californian climate is characterized by enormous variations in rainfall from year to year. Not surprisingly, the climate change experts expect it to only get worse - intense winter storm seasons (think floods and landslides) alternating with very dry years. Oh jolly.

What to do? Since going through life without a shower is not an option around here, I'm considering:

Learning how to harvest the rainwater,
Building a water cistern like the ancients, or maybe even,
Practicing the art of Native American rain dances.