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Health & Fitness

It's All About The Rain

Yeah, it’s pretty dry here in July... Not much reason to be blogging about rain, eh?  But even now, during the dry season, you can stand on the North Peak Access Road and listen to water leaking out of Montara Mountain into the upper reaches of Martini Creek.  That never ceases to amaze me!  Then, to think about the origin of that fresh water—rain, pure and simple—as well as the sheer volume of water that falls from the sky each year?... WOW!

Why would anyone say “WOW!” about the rain?  Well, in order to appreciate the answer to that question, consider the area between Hwy 92 and the Wavecrest property, including downtown HMB and the residential areas west of the highway—it’s about 1 square mile.  When one inch of rain falls on an area that size, it amounts to over 17 million gallons of water!... And our little hamlet normally receives about 28 inches of rain per year.  Calculating... Calculating......... Is this right?  476 million gallons of water per square mile per year?!!  And to think that Pilarcitos Creek alone drains an area of about 29 square miles.  That's a lot of water!  Again: WOW!

That brings us to another point: How do we know what’s “normal”?  Well, that all depends on us and on how observant we are about local precipitation.  Rainfall totals are unique from place to place, and the only way to establish what is “normal” for any area is to measure the rainfall in that area over time and then share that information with climatologists.  We need a group of dedicated local observers in order to substantiate the “normals” for our area.  We've got a few, but we need a few more.  Good topic for a future post...

Find out what's happening in Half Moon Baywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Dare I bring up the issue of climate change?  Well, okay, but only because precipitation is a part of it; and also because change cannot be assessed without careful observation.  And if change is occurring, then “normal” must be changing.  Let’s find out!

  • Do you like the rain? Do you love it?!
  • Have you ever measured the amount of rain that fell?
  • Do your plans change during a “wet year” versus a “dry year”?
  • Have you considered harvesting the rain that falls on your property?
  • Have you ever heard of CoCoRaHS?

Whether it’s about flooding, farming, water quality, or West Nile virus...it’s all about the rain.  

Find out what's happening in Half Moon Baywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Thanks for reading.  I'm curious to see where this blog takes us.

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