WEATHER REVIEW JANUARY 2001
A wild a cold January brought near-normal 5 .13" of rain back to Cent. California
in two distinct bursts, a nice recovery from the disastrous dryness of Nov/Dec.
Very cold air set in over the entire North America with GOA lows, mostly
cutoffs, cruising N-S down the coast, unable to penetrate the continental
block. Decent rain returned to the region beginning 1/07 and fell for 5 straight
days. After nearly 2/1/2 months of relative dryness, this rainy period
(continuing the trend from Autumn of last year of extended on/off rain
periods ) culminated in a wild event on the 10th/11th when a warm frnt/cold
frnt double whammy left 2.3" in it's wake. Over 5" was common in the coastal
mtns south of San Jose down to the Mexican border leaving the NW with much
lighter precip. Winds were clocked to 60mph on the coast (52 here) and some
significant coastal erosion was noted in and south of Pacifica. from 35'+
sea/swells. The sea wall briefly failed near the Pacifica Pier which
required emergency repair, and became a national news item. Monterey and
zones down to Pt. Conception were also pounded.After this extended shot of
rain, skies once again dried out for almost two weeks before a very cold
pattern set up with a narrow ridge nosing way up into Alaska forcing GOA
lows up into the Arctic before diving straight down the coast. As before,
5 straight days of rain occurred, culminating with the deepest low of four
on the 24/25th, bringing 1.6" of precip. Severe thunderstorms erupted
from Monterey south with snow reported below 1000' in the north bay during
the potent frontal passage, and pea hail hit Pacifica with sufficient quantity
(+ brief 39F temps) to last for several hours on the ground. A particularly
nasty front/trough on the 25th pounded Santa Cruz and Monterey as an
intense convective band developed offshore and south of Pacifica then plowed
SE down the coast. The cold air. On the 26th, winds turned due North, and
one of the heaviest frosts in memory occurred. By months end, skies were
once again back into a dry period, but this time a shorter duration of dry
is hoped for. However, the cold air does not look like it's going anywhere
soon, so even if storminess does resume, the lack of moisture will be
of concern. This is historically our "snow window", as many of the rare snow
events in the Bay Area seem to come between the 3rd week in January and the
second week of Feb. After the dusting we received this month, maybe Feb.
has a present for us?
MONTHLY CLIMATOLOGICAL SUMMARY for JAN. 2001
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
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1 54.6 62.7 2:45p 48.1 12:45a 9.6 0.0 0.00 3.8 21.0 8:00a N
2 57.9 65.4 3:15p 52.5 6:15a 6.0 0.0 0.00 4.0 15.0 12:45a WNW
3 58.1 64.0 2:45p 52.8 4:15a 6.6 0.0 0.00 4.1 22.0 11:00a WNW
4 57.9 65.8 3:00p 54.1 2:15a 5.0 0.0 0.00 4.0 18.0 8:45a N
5 57.9 65.3 3:45p 51.7 9:00a 6.5 0.0 0.00 3.7 23.0 8:45a N
6 53.1 62.7 2:00p 46.9 11:30p 10.2 0.0 0.00 1.0 7.0 12:00p N
7 51.9 58.3 2:00p 46.1 3:15a 12.8 0.0 0.10 3.7 43.0 8:45p S
8 51.8 55.1 12:45a 48.9 10:45p 13.0 0.0 0.39 4.8 33.0 1:00a S
9 49.8 51.6 1:30p 47.5 6:45a 15.5 0.0 0.05 4.6 29.0 6:00p S
10 53.6 58.2 5:30p 50.7 4:15a 10.5 0.0 0.90 10.4 51.0 12:30p S
11 49.9 54.7 12:15a 46.5 9:00p 14.4 0.0 1.40 6.9 38.0 9:00a S
12 51.3 56.9 3:00p 46.0 5:00a 13.5 0.0 0.00 3.6 24.0 5:00a NNE
13 53.2 56.9 1:15p 50.9 12:00m 11.1 0.0 0.01 2.2 11.0 12:15a SSW
14 50.4 55.1 1:30p 44.2 11:15p 15.3 0.0 0.00 1.2 10.0 5:30p N
15 48.2 55.0 2:00p 41.5 7:30a 16.8 0.0 0.00 3.4 24.0 4:00p N
16 47.2 53.5 3:15p 41.8 12:00m 17.3 0.0 0.00 3.8 22.0 11:30a N
17 47.0 54.5 2:45p 41.8 12:15a 16.8 0.0 0.00 2.7 16.0 12:45a NNE
18 48.7 56.0 1:45p 42.2 4:00a 15.9 0.0 0.00 1.2 14.0 10:00a ENE
19 50.6 57.3 3:15p 46.6 5:30a 13.1 0.0 0.00 2.6 16.0 11:30p N
20 50.0 59.1 2:45p 45.9 10:00p 12.5 0.0 0.00 3.1 19.0 11:45a S
21 50.2 56.2 2:30p 44.2 4:15a 14.8 0.0 0.00 2.5 16.0 2:45p NE
22 51.8 60.4 2:00p 45.1 7:15a 12.3 0.0 0.00 2.3 14.0 10:15p S
23 51.6 55.5 9:45a 47.0 12:00m 13.8 0.0 0.41 9.1 46.0 7:15p S
24 47.2 52.5 1:45p 43.2 6:00a 17.2 0.0 0.36 2.1 15.0 5:00p SSW
25 45.9 50.6 10:45a 41.0 3:15p 19.2 0.0 1.03 6.1 44.0 1:30p S
26 45.2 49.6 1:45p 41.5 12:15a 19.5 0.0 0.36 3.1 21.0 11:45a SSW
27 46.3 54.8 2:15p 39.6 2:30a 17.8 0.0 0.01 1.6 14.0 12:00p WNW
28 48.6 56.9 2:45p 42.3 4:30a 15.4 0.0 0.00 1.7 13.0 11:00a SSW
29 48.8 54.0 1:00p 42.7 12:00m 16.7 0.0 0.11 3.3 22.0 3:45p NW
30 46.7 53.5 3:30p 41.9 2:30a 17.3 0.0 0.00 2.6 15.0 4:15p NNE
31 48.4 57.6 3:30p 43.6 6:30a 14.4 0.0 0.00 3.3 20.0 1:45p NNE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
50.8 65.8 4 39.6 27 420.8 0.0 5.13 3.6 51.0 10 N
Max >= 90.0: 0
Max <= 32.0: 0
Min <= 32.0: 0
Min <= 0.0: 0
Max Rain: 1.40 ON 1/11/01
Days of Rain: 10 (>.01 in) 8 (>.1 in) 2 (>1 in)
Heat Base: 65.0 Cool Base: 65.0 Method: (High + Low) / 2