I mentioned earlier today that my friend Jan Null, former lead forecaster for the NWS in San Francisco and now operator of Golden Gate Weather Service pointed out that a number of cold records were set overnight. Looks like we are in for a second night, and it looks even colder for some areas. Napa’s wine valley may hit 26-27 tonight. 2011 may not be a good year for wine then. We’ll see. Other grape growing areas in coastal valleys will also be affected:
Here’s the official record reports:
SXUS76 KMTR 270037 CCA
RERMTR
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
430 PM PST SAT FEB 26 2011
THE FOLLOWING SITES SET A NEW RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE FOR THIS DATE
LOW PREVIOUS YEAR OF
SITE TEMPERATURE RECORD PREVIOUS RECORD
NAPA 28 30 1945 CORRECTED
OAKLAND 34 38 1987
OAKLAND INTL ARPT 32 34 1962
SFO INTL ARPT 35 36 1971
SAN RAFAEL 28 32 1996
THE FOLLOWING SITES TIED PREVIOUS RECORD LOW TEMPERATURES
LOW YEAR OF
SITE TEMPERATURE PREVIOUS RECORD
SAN FRANCISCO 37 1962
MOUNTAIN VIEW 34 1962
SAN JOSE 33 1897
Here’s the forecast for Saint Helena in the center of the Napa Valley tonight, they call for 26 degrees.
Growing areas near Salinas will also get a frost.
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Hell is freezing over!!!!!
Temperatures in the Sierra Madre region of Mexico (Madera) fell to -20C on the 3rd and 4th February, and -9C in Chihuahua, not rising above freezing during the day, for a week.
The Warmists would naturally blame AGW.
Yes, it’s finally happened.
Grapes should be ok. They should still be dormant. Grapes in Europe endure temperatures well below freezing each year. We had vines back east and would get down to zero sometimes. The only time it would hurt the grapes is if they had already started to put out leaves.
I think they are still dormant so they should be fine.
REPLY: We have a lot of early blooms in the Sac Valley, due to unseasonably warm weather a couple weeks back. That’s the concern here -A
Smokey says: February 26, 2011 at 7:04 pm
“Yes, it’s finally happened.”
Where on earth is The Hell??
There was significant ice reported on the roads and bridges of the Napa Valley during the very cold days of Feb 15-16-17 earlier this month. Before that week’s cold weather, the power plant I was working down south of San Jose had significant ice damage to the turbine blades, so even the south San Fran Bay area has been hit this winter.
The earlier ice may, or may not, mean the vines are additionally damaged by this regional snow, or may mean they were already cold-adapted and not too badly harmed.
What will the Futures market purchases/sales on early Monday morning for Napa/Sonoma/Central Valley wines be?
Is the famous wind-farm OK under such freezing in California?
tokyoboy
California isn’t the only place. North Korea is also apparently seeing record cold:
http://www.nkeconwatch.com/2011/02/21/dprk-experiencing-record-low-temperatures/
Looks like we’re in for a bumper crop of Eiswein!
If it doesn’t pan out though, it’ll be fun to watch the California Wine Lobby start a campaign to maintain global warming…
What you people do not seem to understand is that all your cold weather is due to human CO2 emissions causing dangerous climate disruption (formerly know as [fka] dangerous climate change fka climate change fka global warming).
REPENT
Say no more.
/sarc off
Looking like the UK may have another cold blast in about 4 days time too. See jetstream forecast for 06Z Thurs 3rd March hereabouts:
http://squall.sfsu.edu/crws/jetstream_fcsts.html
Will be intersting to see what comes across the US behind this lot. Hard to judge how long it might last.
Protect pets? In 25F degree weather? Really? Maybe chihuahuas and hairless cats.
Smokey says: February 26, 2011 at 7:43 pm “tokyoboy”
Thanks. As someone who once lived in West Berlin, I take the story (out of the two) that Hell originates in the expression “So schön hell!”
Another story is a bit too truthful.
Sorry if this is not the most appropriate post to attach this comment to, but…
Please have a look at the graph on page one on the link below –
then, presuming this garph is bona fide, can anyone tell me what was happening between 1950 – 1960?
http://www.skepticalscience.com/Measuring-Earths-energy-imbalance.html
Thanks, Tom
Elizabeth, pets (and people) not adapted to cold can suffer in merely cool weather. Fortunately I don’t have that problem with the thermostat set to 55 or so.
Hell is a small city in southern Michigan. Photos of their city sign in winter are fairly common. They were hit with a good ice storm earlier this week.
“tokyoboy says: February 26, 2011 at 8:03 pm”
Self-correction: “truthful” should read “ruthful”.
Pushed two neigboring letters.
DJ says:
February 26, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Looks like we’re in for a bumper crop of Eiswein!
If it doesn’t pan out though, it’ll be fun to watch the California Wine Lobby start a campaign to maintain global warming…
We’re on the wrong end of the growing season. Eiswein is made when mature grapes are frozen on the vine by a hard frost. The grapes are harvested and pressed while still frozen which produces a very concentrated must and a sweet but incredibly complex and intense wine. Haven’t had any for years, but the German vintages I had many years ago were beautiful wines.
Now can can start making “winter wine”.
Boy! I’m impressed some readers actually knew where Hell, Michigan is. Living Hell, Michigan is a much larger town to the east. Just follow I-94 east to the ruins.
I believe California’s wine region grows some of the more “sensitive” varieties. And, as Anthony mentioned early blooms before a frost can devastate any fruit crop anywhere. Western Michigan has extensive vineyards and a bunch of wineries but I don’t think the vines so much as expose a green shoot until about May (after the April blizzards).
“can anyone tell me what was happening between 1950 – 1960?”
Global energy deficit. Corresponds to peak of the baby boom. We were pretty tired.
Nice map. The NWS uses Linux?
(Yes it’s late here, sorry.)
Dont’ have time to look it up, but these things seem to be oh, once every 10 or so years.
They occur with regularity that was not predicted by AGW theory…
Minnesota wine is a growing phenomenon. I suspect the Californians aren’t doing things the same way, though, different root stock, different hybrids, different winterizing, etc.