FEBRUARY 2000 WX REVIEW
Our unusual La Nina pattern of above average rains continued in many parts
of No.Calif, as Feb. became a record month in terms of # days with
rain..with SF setting a record for measurable precip on 21 out of 29 days
(leapyear). Here in Pacifica, where my "daily" time window is from 0000-2400,
we had rain on 18 days. 11.36" fell, which is the third wettest Feb. in my
records. While 11"+ is impressive for any month, it is dwarfed by the 13.59"
in Feb.1998 (El Nino).
The month started out continuing late January 's Pineapple Connection pattern
of tropical moisture being pumped north by a depressed EPac High and interacting
with impulses swinging underneath a semi-permanent GOA low. With both features
fairly stable, moisture streams from deep in the tropics took dead aim on
the Cent. Calif Coast..leaving huge rain totals in the Santa Lucia Mountains
(27"+) and other orographically favored areas.
Rain rates locally peaked between the 11th and 14th, when well over 6" fell
- the second time in less than a month that a Pineapple Connection had left
around 1/2' FOOT of rain in a single visit. However, due to the very dry
fall and early Winter period, ground saturation took a lot longer to
occur, so flooding was minimized. After the mid-month hosing, the general
storm track started to quickly evolve into a more Spring like pattern, with
cutoff lows starting to track much more N-S, bringing heavy rain at last
to SoCal and then inland, producing unusually early season severe weather
in the southern plains through the Gulf Coast. As these lows moved past the
coast, some of the heaviest winds of the season were noted, with winds peaking
at 56mph on the 26th. Here's an interesting sidelight - while many places
along the coast and especially inland experienced briefly severe weather
in the form of hail, T' Storms and very heavy downpours, (numerous
funnel sightings near Fresno on the 28th) Pacifica seemed to escape the brunt
of these events. Pea hail fell only once on the 28th, and no T'storms
or heavy frontal passages occurred all month - mostly wind and steady rains
during the Pineapple hosing early in the month, and lighter steady rain
intermixed with moderate rains later on.
MONTHLY CLIMATOLOGICAL SUMMARY for FEB. 2000
NAME: HOME CITY: Pacifica STATE: Ca ELEV: 540' LAT: 37.36'N LONG: 122.27'W
TEMPERATURE (°F), RAIN (in), WIND SPEED (mph)
HEAT COOL AVG
MEAN DEG DEG WIND DOM
DAY TEMP HIGH TIME LOW TIME DAYS DAYS RAIN SPEED HIGH TIME DIR
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 56.0 63.0 3:00p 52.0 6:00a 7.5 0.0 0.01 2.8 14.0 6:30a N
2 55.7 63.1 4:30p 50.6 8:00a 8.2 0.0 0.00 5.4 23.0 2:30p S
3 54.6 62.1 11:30a 50.9 8:00p 8.5 0.0 0.50 5.4 44.0 12:30p S
4 54.1 59.3 4:00p 50.9 8:00a 9.9 0.0 0.00 4.2 26.0 4:30p NNE
5 54.6 55.9 5:30a 52.7 11:58p 10.7 0.0 0.41 6.9 38.0 11:58a S
6 55.1 62.8 3:58p 49.7 11:58p 8.8 0.0 0.00 2.7 20.0 1:28p NNE
7 52.9 59.8 1:28p 47.6 5:28a 11.3 0.0 0.01 1.8 15.0 6:28a ENE
8 51.7 64.1 1:28p 45.9 7:28a 10.0 0.0 0.01 1.2 14.0 1:28p ESE
9 53.7 59.1 1:28p 51.5 12:58a 9.7 0.0 0.05 4.0 31.0 8:00p S
10 52.3 55.0 4:00p 47.8 11:00p 13.6 0.0 0.91 4.5 25.0 5:00a S
11 48.7 52.4 10:00a 47.0 9:44p 15.3 0.0 1.80 6.9 51.0 3:00p S
12 50.9 53.4 12:55p 48.4 12:01a 14.1 0.0 0.35 7.1 26.0 11:50p S
13 54.5 57.2 6:35p 50.0 2:55a 11.4 0.0 2.27 15.5 54.0 4:50a S
14 54.3 56.6 1:00a 49.3 11:55p 0.0 0.0 0.84 11.6 49.0 1:45a S
15 51.6 57.4 1:45p 46.0 6:00a 0.0 0.0 0.00 1.4 13.0 11:20a N
16 50.4 55.0 2:35p 47.6 10:10p 13.7 0.0 0.16 2.4 18.0 11:40a SSW
17 50.0 56.7 1:55p 45.3 5:55a 14.0 0.0 0.01 1.3 13.0 1:00p ESE
18 52.6 59.3 3:15p 47.7 5:00a 11.5 0.0 0.00 3.3 17.0 10:05a NNE
19 56.8 64.0 3:25p 50.9 1:20a 7.5 0.0 0.00 3.9 17.0 5:50p NNE
20 54.7 59.6 9:45a 49.7 8:40p 10.3 0.0 0.36 5.8 40.0 3:00p S
21 52.3 62.3 2:25p 47.7 6:45a 10.0 0.0 0.31 2.9 17.0 4:35a NNE
22 51.2 53.7 10:55a 47.0 12:00m 14.7 0.0 1.13 10.3 48.0 1:15p S
23 48.2 53.7 12:45p 44.5 7:45a 15.9 0.0 0.03 2.0 15.0 3:50p E
24 46.3 50.7 12:05p 43.6 6:55a 17.8 0.0 0.29 2.6 20.0 1:50p S
25 50.1 54.6 2:25p 45.0 12:05a 15.2 0.0 0.00 3.6 21.0 11:25p N
26 53.0 56.8 1:15p 51.3 7:15a 11.0 0.0 0.91 16.2 54.0 4:40p S
27 51.9 56.4 12:45p 49.7 7:00a 11.9 0.0 0.32 9.1 45.0 1:25a S
28 51.4 55.6 2:35p 48.7 6:00a 12.8 0.0 0.08 4.0 16.0 2:55a S
29 51.0 56.6 2:05p 46.9 11:55p 13.3 0.0 0.60 5.1 29.0 5:55a SSW
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
52.4 64.1 8 43.6 24 318.6 0.0 11.36 5.3 54.0 13 S
Max >= 90.0: 0
Max <= 32.0: 0
Min <= 32.0: 0
Min <= 0.0: 0
Max Rain: 2.27 ON 2/13/00
Days of Rain: 18 (>.01 in) 15 (>.1 in) 3 (>1 in)
Heat Base: 65.0 Cool Base: 65.0 Method: (High + Low) / 2