Ingrid , we will have rain in North Texas Wednesday , Friday and Sunday. Unfortunately it won't be enough to put a dent in our drought. I as sooo looking forward to a soaking for my soon to be 25 newly planted roses. Let's pray for rain!!!!

So glad these predicted storms will hit So Cal as well! That makes sense, as they say the horrible high pressure ridge is going to go North for a while, so these storms can get in South of it.

Jackie

I'm thrilled that you will get rain Ingrid. We should receive 4 or 5 inches from this system and our pond will be overflowing. I've been throwing out feathermeal and compost. Let us know how it goes for you.

I have all my big tubs at the ready and over 60 water jugs ready to fill. Come on rain!!!

Note I am not complaining about rain!

4-6" sound great. But would rather it not be mostly on one day with 60 mph wind

Yesterday was a busy and long day for me, we are fixing the old "garage" (built before cars so probably an orange or hay storage shed) Even though the roof needs work, I quick put up some vinyl rain gutters so I could direct the run off to the roses and orange trees. I hope to have time on Thursday to get back to moms and add to the drain pipe.

I wish I could do a rain barrel, but it is too close to the neighbors "garage" (probably a wagon sized carriage house)

Looking forward to rain!

I always watch the 10-day forecast and have been hooting over this one for some time -- fingers crossed.
One of my Alnwick Roses -- about 18 mos. old -- has a small bloom just unfurling, Marie Van Houtte has buds, and all my hybrid teas are budding or about to bloom. It'll be interesting to see what happens and how things react ...
Got the raincoat, boots, dirty car -- just waiting now. I'll be watching the radar.
Sylvia

We're supposed to get some rain here, in fact much of the west is. I'm glad those of you in the southland will be getting a good soaking this time around. You were cheated last time. And Texas, too; that is good. I for one am very grateful. I was beginning to believe that we would not get as much as three inches in the entire year.

I like your suggestion, Ingrid. I think I will do some fertilizing tomorrow myself.

Folly

My hope is that this low pressure system will pull another one along behind it, which is what typically happens with winter rains. This is not a typical year so it may not happen, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Ingrid

Good luck!!

Wed morning here, and although the weather guy on TV swore last night that we would not see any rain until noon today, it was already raining steadily when I got up at 7AM.

It is supposed to continue for the next 4 days (2 storms worth). This is our typical weather pattern Nov/March - I am so glad to see it back! I am feeling a little guilty, though. Our water where I live is from local reservoirs, and they are filling up fast (like Pam's pond). The area where they are got 17 inches of rain in one week about 3 weeks ago. Our water company has already admitted that there will now not be any water rationing. It is beginning to appear that our water storage will be back to normal soon, even though the rainfall numbers are not yet normal - so much rain has fallen so quickly that the reservoirs will be full and spilling soon, and so it doesn't matter that the rainfall numbers are still behind.

However, this is a very local to this one area situation, and the whole state is still in a very bad way for water. So, I really hope that some of these storms also hit So Cal, and snow on the Sierras. Please let us know Ingrid and others in So Cal, if you get any rain from this event.

Jackie

We had some light rain from Wednesday night through Thursday morning. However, the "big" storm, names Titan, is supposed to begin Friday morning and is forecast to bring 3-5 inches, with high winds and probably a huge erosion problem in the many areas that have had wildfires. It's never quite the way you want it to be. Our specific area has flood warnings to boot, so I can't wait to go to work tomorrow! Titan is slated to cover the entire United States, and I don't recall there ever being a storm that traveled across the entire country. Unfortunately (and naturally) it will get colder and colder as it heads east. Those poor easterners (and southeasterners) just cannot catch a break.

Ingrid

We had some light rain from Wednesday night through Thursday morning. However, the "big" storm, names Titan, is supposed to begin Friday morning and is forecast to bring 3-5 inches, with high winds and probably a huge erosion problem in the many areas that have had wildfires. It's never quite the way you want it to be. Our specific area has flood warnings to boot, so I can't wait to go to work tomorrow! Titan is slated to cover the entire United States, and I don't recall there ever being a storm that traveled across the entire country. Unfortunately (and naturally) it will get colder and colder as it heads east. Those poor easterners (and southeasterners) just cannot catch a break.

Ingrid

Hope that this breaks the drought- good luck!

Raining when I went to bed last night, raining when I woke up, still raining now. There's a small lake forming in my backyard.
I feel as if my garden is a vast gaping mouth, gulping all this water as a baby gulps milk.
O the joy!
Sylvia

There were/are 2 storms in the last 3 days. The first one, which was from Wed to Thursday morning, gave us 2 inches of rain.

The second one started here this morning (Fri) about 1AM, and it rained hard all night after that, and it is still raining. The interesting thing to me about this one is that they said we in No Cal would only be getting "a brush from the edge of it" - most of it would hit So Cal. It rained HARD - I would guess at least an inch in a few hours here, so if this is just the edge, So Cal should be getting lots more, as Ingrid says above. Hopefully not too many flash floods or mudslides -

Jackie

If you watch the forecast for my area it was for a lot more and heavier rain than we got. Not complaining, but was worried about 4" over night rather than 2".

I spread one box of fertilizer yesterday and should probably spread a couple more today. (E B Stone ultra bloom 0-10-10) never used it before but supposed to be good.

Hoping the lakes are getting water!

I never got around to spreading fertilizer, though I did go out and buy two 30 pound bags so at least I will be ready when the next opportunity presents itself. I did plant the two roses I had waiting in pots, Cl Maman Cochet and Annie Laurie McDowell. Now my pot ghetto consists of a couple trees and a few native shrubs. I hope to plant those over the course of the next month or two. I moved two clematis and have two more that need to go in the ground, but one of them will have to wait. Tom is in the process of converting the spray irrigation to drip. That clematis plant would be in the way while he works on that particular bed. I don't like drip irrigation as well as spray, but I have come to accept the necessity of it.

The rain is most welcome, but realistically we will still be in drought even if it rains every week for the remainder of the rainy season, and we will still face water restrictions. Here in the San Jose area we have just topped a total of 4" for the 2013-2014 rain season. Honestly I was not sure we were going to make it to 3", so this is actually a good thing. Now I have my eyes set on us making the 5" mark. Who knows? Maybe we'll reach 6" if we are very, very lucky. Of course it is the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada that determines how much water most of the state will have over the rest of the year. You can see the rain has brought to me a rising optimism. In past years I would be aghast at getting a mere 6" of rainfall with 15" being our average, but I have been humbled by the forces of the weather gods.

Folly

I bottled up 87+ gallons this morning for the bands and houseplants, and have my big buckets out for more. The main thunderstorm passed north of me in LA and then over Pasadena. We just got the tail of it here so I didn't get to hear any thunder. Good news for the Huntington. It must have been 4+ inches there. There is still a chance for more tonight and on Sat. Kim, I hope your garden got plenty of rain out of it.

Thanks, Kitty, yours, too! I've been watching Wunderground.com off and on today and noticing an average of about two inches for most stations on the Valley floor. Encino Hills has now registered 6.88" at 1220 ft elevation (I'm at about 1,000') since midnight last night. Both of the 44 gal trash cans I left out last night are full from the run off the roof the gutters didn't catch. It hasn't really let up since last night, but it's all soaking in. It will take a few weeks before you can actually walk on the slope out back. The cuttings and roses out front are leafing out rapidly and the seedlings I can see from the sun room. They're covering the soil surface with brilliant, fresh green.

Ingrid, Raws Valley Center reports 1.79" and Pauma Heights reports 1.91" if that helps. Kind of scary...Kim

Our plastic wheelbarrows have an amazing amount of water in them.

And so far my drain pipes are directing all that water to bed that seem to be soaking it all up. The rest of the property looks great and is handling all the rain well from what I can see. I did get that other box spread this morning, just as the sky let loose. Just up the hill from us a couple of miles there was a 65mph gust. Hoping that the flowers will not have been knocked off all the fruit trees. One good thing, our fruit trees are almost all young. In the past a gust like that would have usually had mom calling about downed limbs.

My friends stopped by for a quick tour of the garden, we both just made it back to the cars with out a serious soaking.

Kim is right, we had 1.79 inches so far, but there's more expected tonight and tomorrow, perhaps even into Sunday morning, so we're hoping that it will go well above 2 inches. I'm thrilled that everyone is seeing quite a bit of rain since we all need it so much, and I hope it's snowing non-stop in the Sierras. We had high winds so the garden is a mess but I don't care; that can be fixed.

I just stepped outside and it's raining again!

Ingrid

I am so happy for you! I do have one tiny request though...please do not send it on to me in the form of SNOW! I am already quite inundated with the stuff, lol.

Our total for the 2 storms in 3 days was 3.25 inches - yay! Total for Feb is 10.25 inches. Our watershed where the local reservoirs are (we depend on them, not snow pack) got 4.5 inches, which is a total for Feb of 21.5 inches - amazing.

I want to go out into the garden and do things, but the clouds are still threatening, and they say we might get more rain today, so I am lurking inside. The birds are all singing, and the sun is peeking out - I am looking for rainbows - I'm sure there are some.

Jackie

So glad to hear you're getting much needed rain! Hopefully this will help a little this summer.

We're in the 80's today in Dallas, warm tonight, then tomorrow it drops into the 20's with sleet, yuck. Fruit trees are in bloom, we'll lose fruit again this year. Winter's not over yet!

seil, I've put in a special order for the weather front to stop dead in its tracks before it reaches your house - you'll have to let me know how well I've succeeded. Oh dear, according to what I'm seeing on the weather news right now I've failed miserably. So sorry. The good news is only for us here in that it's raining again this morning.

Ingrid

After two years of drought (hard to tell when we're in a drought around here; it's always dry), we set a February record for precipitation, about 2 inches for the month, here in the valley. But the snow pack is where it's at for us, and that looks good, too. The reservoirs will be filling when the snow melts, and it's looking like the farmers won't get shorted on their water allotments. It's raining now with more predicted, and we've had a mild winter. Everything looks good. Big fear for me is a bad spring freeze in April like last year, but I'm very optimistic. And I'm happy for all of you who've had such a needed reversal of fortune in the rain department. Diane

In Gaviotta at elevation 900 ft we have a total of 6.7 in. fromThursday to Saturday. We are on well water so we are very thankful of this. Now DH will need to take the tractor to the repair the road -- small price to pay for liquid gold.

This post was edited by nancylee2 on Sat, Mar 1, 14 at 21:40

I hope all the SoCal people are okay- that storm looked like a doozy. It was big enough The Weather Channel started admitting the country doesn't start east of the Rockies and actually gave us some air time!

Up here in Sacramento we're at just under half our normal amount of rain, which isn't actually normal because we generally have wet years or dry years and practically nothing in-between. But as always it's the snowpack that will make or break us. Go snow, go!! (Just not on Seil and everybody else who has too much.)

Nancy Lee. Have you seen the end of the pier by you right to the hoist washed away. Next high tide is in about 3 hours

This set of storms brought San Jose 1.87 inches of rain, bringing us up to 4.51 inches for the 2013-2014 season. I am grateful, and hoping 'please, sir, I want some more!'

Folly

Oh my gosh! Jim is checking now and sees that the T at the pier end is gone. And they are fearful that they may lose the boat hoist tonight or tomorrow morning at the even higher tide. Goleta Beach says waves crashed into the Beachside restaurant also. Outside seating area is gone. Here, we haven't been down off the mountain for fear of damaging the shale roads; plenty of food in the freezer. Waves and waves quite high. Thanks for the alert. I think I like being at 900 ft up even if we do get more inches of rain than lower elevations.