Artichoke season

The artichokes in my front yard are sure ugly from a distance, but parts of it are excellent.






- Posted at great expense from my iPhone

0.03" rain; 14.67" season total

A late storm passed through and gave us 0.03" of rain in my backyard.  Actually, it was a "fat" 0.02" in my rain gauge but I'm rounding up due to evaporative losses.  14.94" is the third quartile of Los Angeles' rainfall (using statistics going back to 1945), so despite appearances it's not a particularly wet rain year.

Rain in May

Everyone seems surprised at the recent rain. I know that I was. There is a definite chance of rainfall in May - the median rainfall amount is 0.02" in Los Angeles and the third quartile is 0.11" (meaning that statistically speaking there's a 75% chance of up to 0.11").

In fact, since 2000, we've had measurable May rainfall in 9 of 11 years.

2009 0.00"
2008 0.12
2007 0.36
2006 0.62
2005 0.34
2004 0.04
2003 0.98
2002 0.12
2001 0.04
2000 0.00

1998 and 1977 had about 2 inches of rain in May! However, as I look over the May rainfall figures it seems that there are quite a few more 0.00's in years prior to 2000 than in years subsequent to it. The following graph shows a moving average of May rainfall and it appears that we're actually in an increasing trend. There are are decade-long or longer trends in weather, but one can always hypothesize global warming as the culprit. 

Or it could just be the weather.

Bulb

A bulb in my garden. I ought to know the name, but it's slipped mind. It's a California native, of course.



- Posted at great expense from my iPhone

First Matilija poppy bloom

- Posted at great expense from my iPhone