Weather Blog

by Mike Nicco

ABC7 meteorologist Mike Nicco answers your weather questions.

Adopt-A-Thon for Peninsula Humane Society

Saturday, July 11, 11 AM to Midnight

Last July, the shelter held its first-ever Adopt-a-Thon. We remained open until midnight and found homes for 66 shelter animals, tripling our previous one-day record.

This year, we have a plan to make even more matches, our own stimulus package. On July 11, we’re going to let adopters pick their own adoption fee! That’s for dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs or oinking pigs. It’s never been attempted in the area, but, as always, we think outside the kitty litter box when it comes to finding new homes for the animals.

Plus, we’ll have pet supplies 20% off. Please join us!

Peninsula Humane Society

Perfect Pet - Friday, June 26th

Mia 

Meet Mia.  Mia is a 1 yr, 7 months old altered female Pit Bull. She is a gentle girl … both calm and curious. She can get along with some male dogs, and children in their teens. She will need to have mandatory training to help refine her social skills (although she knows “sit”, “down”, “come” and can even do a “high-five”). She should go to a home that has experience with her breed, and the folks at PHS will want to do a property inspection to be sure she is going to a safe and secure home.

Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA

650.340.7022

Lightning

By definition, all thunderstorms contain lightning.  Lightning is a giant spark of electricity in our atmosphere.  Lightning occurs within a single cloud, cloud to cloud, and cloud to ground.  You can hear the thunder created by lightning without seeing the lightning. 

 

Lightning creates thunder rapidly, almost instantaneously, heating the air to nearly 50,000 degrees.  This creates an explosive expansion and slower contraction of air.  The resultant shock-wave is thunder.

 

Lightning travels roughly at half the speed of light, 93,000 miles per second.  Thunder travels much slower, about 1100 feet per second. Therefore, it takes thunder 5 seconds to travel one mile. Use the 5 to 1 ration to tell how far away you are from the strike.

 

The United States averages 25 million cloud to ground lightning strikes per year, taking an average of 58 lives.  Lightning injured more than 250 people in California and Nevada during the last 50 years.

Remember the 30/30 rule when dealing with lightning.  If after seeing lightning you hear thunder before 30 seconds passes seek shelter.  Also, stay in the shelter until 30 minutes elapses after the last lightning strike.

Perfect Pet - Friday, June 19th

Luna 

We had a tour group of elementary students today.  Luna was awesome with them, very loving and gentle.  You could tell she will make a great addition to your family.

 

Meet the affectionate Luna, in her own words.

 

I am a 2 year old, 68 pound, grey and white, spayed female Pit Bull mix. I’m am the sweetest, wiggliest, silly, playful big girl you’ll ever meet. Love to play with stuffies, romp with other dogs, and snuggle for hugs and kisses. I am a strong girl, but oh so gentle too. Everyone at The SF/SPCA wants me to find the perfect home and family match.

 

Few things to know: 1. If you’re a renter, your landlord will need to give approval in writing 2. SF/SPCA trainer will want to make a home visit 3. Reward-based training class is included, plus discounts on additional classes.

 

At one time, Pittie’s were America’s true family dog, until bad people, made some of us bad dogs, giving us a bad rap. SF/SPCA trainer follow up/counsel also included.

 

You can reach the San Francisco SPCA by calling 415-554.3000.

 

Reno's Record Rain for June - Update

Hi,

I enjoy your informational tidbits!

The other day you mentioned that Reno was close to a rainfall record, 
for June, I recall.  Please let us know if they break the record.

Thanks,

Woody Nedom

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Woody, 

I’ll definitely keep an eye on it for you.   

Including today, Reno's rain total for June is 1.52 inches.  This is now the 3rd wettest June.

I can see us surpassing the 1.53 inches for second place.  The record is 1.94 inches.  This looks tough to beat especially with chances for rain looking bleak the next several days.

Reno Forcast  

Appreciate the kind words.  

Take care, 

Mike


Average June Weather in San Jose

Our days continue warming through June in San Jose.  The average high for June warms from 79° on the 1st to 82° on the 30th.  Lows, on the other hand, remain steady at 57° from the month's beginning to its end.

Experiencing a June rain in San Jose is scarce prospect.  It's the third driest month, behind July and August, with an average of .10 inches.  The greatest amount of rain fell in 1985, 0.84 inches.

June is the 4th warmest month in San Jose.  An average June experiences nearly 4 days with high temperatures at or above 90 degrees.  The warmest high soared to 109° on the 14th of 2000.  At the other extreme, the coldest temperature cooled to 42° on the 2nd of 1996.

May in San Jose

May in San Jose was cooler than average during the day.  The high temperature averaged 76.2 degrees.  The normal is 76.7.   At the other extreme, morning lows averaged warmer than normal.  The low temperature averaged 53.9 degrees.  Normal is 51.8 degrees.

May's warmest temperature in San Jose was 97 degrees on the 17th.  We also reached 95 degrees on the 16th.  An average May experiences 1.5 degrees with afternoon temperatures at or above 90 degrees.  The coolest temperature was 48 degrees on the 21st.

San Jose recorded rain the first five days of May.  It was measurable on the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th.  The total was an unimpressive 0.09 inches, only 20 percent of normal.  An average May receives 0.44 inches.

North American Monsoon - Starts Today

The North American monsoon begins today and lasts through September 30th.  This summer thunderstorm season in the southwest gained its official name in 2004.  Before that, it was called the Mexican monsoon, Southwest monsoon, and Arizona monsoon.

The North American monsoon is a seasonal shift in the winds over the southwestern U.S.  The southerly winds bring humid air from the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of California, and Pacific Ocean.  The humidity interacts with the heat and terrain to produce thunderstorms.

Before being named the North American monsoon, meteorologists first had to debate whether the Southwest's summer storms were a true monsoon.  The word "monsoon" is derived from the Arabic word "mausim" which means season.  Monsoon season is redundant.

North American monsoon - The weather behind the wind shift.   

Record Setting Cool Highs in Palm Springs

On June 2nd, the afternoon high warmed to 100 degrees in Palm Springs.  Over the last 8 days since then their highs cooled to well below average, which is 103 degrees.   If this streak reaches 12 days, it will join four other years in having the fourth longest streak of below 100 degree high temperatures. 

I believe they will make and surpass the 12 day mark.  I'm forecasting below 100 degree highs for at least another 7 days.   

The National Weather Service agrees.


Where is the summer heat?

Everybody keeps asking when is it going to be hot.

The latest 6-10 and 8-14 day forecast keep us cooler than average with, believe it or not, a better than average chance of rain. Not sure I agree with the rain. Two weeks from today we could see a hot spell.

610prcp 

610temp 

814prcp

814temp 

Our semi-permanent eastern pacific high pressure recently dropped anchor farther west in the Pacific Ocean than normal.  It's absence allowed a trough to develop over the west coast.  The trough keeps driving cooler than average air from Canada into our neighborhoods.  

Nam_200_000s  

Two weeks, yes two weeks from now, our medium range models forecast a retreat of the jet stream back to the north near the Canadian border, where it should be this time of year.  Look for warmer weather then.

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