November 2015

El Niño: A New Feature on our Web Site
Weather is critical to what happens on More Mesa. Drought and its effects on More Mesa have been discussed over the last several years. Now with a “too-big-to-fail” El Niño about to alleviate some of that drought, a new section Ecology->Climate and Weather, has been added to the website for more information about our local weather. Two of the videos from that section are repeated in this post.

Droughts to Floods: Weather and Climate in Southern California and Potential Impact of El Nino

by Eric Boldt of the National Weather Service
Click on the heading if the video does not display in this page.

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El Niño – La Niña by Keith Meldahl

One of the clearest explanations of El Niño, La Niña and the southern oscillation, with excellent animation.


Finally … we urge you to please use extreme caution in windy weather and after it rains!
There is a reason they call Eucalyptus trees “widow makers.” They are brittle and often break off branches or fall during wind-storms. We have always advised visitors to More Mesa to stay away from these trees when it is windy. However, all our trees and especially Eucalyptus are in a very weakened condition as a result of the drought. This means they will be much more likely to splinter and break after severe rain events as well. Unhappily even our sturdy oaks, native to the area and generally adapted to droughts, are weakened and failing as well. 

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