Moonlight over the Pacific. Above the moon, Jupiter and then Saturn.

Moonlight over the Pacific. Above the moon, Jupiter and then Saturn.

Sundown at Trinidad, California. We’re hunkered down here for a few nights, completely self-sufficient and not likely to go anywhere. Not a bad choice with this view. I have a feeling this is the last time we’ll risk going somewhere until vaccinations.

Good morning. This morning’s sun rise almost makes up for my neighbor being obsessive with their sheet metal shelters and sheds.

The rainy season in California is right around the corner, so I just cleaned the rain gage & other weather station components of summer’s dust and ash. Meanwhile, the mandarins are slowly ripening.


I’m looking forward to winter. Summer was far too long.

TBH, Fall is grilling season here.

10/11/20
If you have a weather station with Meteobridge, I’ve made a iOS Siri Shortcut so Siri can tell you about current conditions. You can tweak the weather report using variables on Meteobridge’s template page along with other small shortcut adjustments.
By default it reports current temperature, humidity and gusts in the last hour.
You’ll likely want to change the shortcut’s name. I chose simply “Yard” since Siri on HomePod finds it unique enough to not do something else. And my station is in the yard.
Been a few years since we first wanted to mulch the backyard. Weather got nice so here we go with 10 cu yd of chips!

Today’s obligatory wildfire smoke scene. Halide app made it dead easy to override auto white balance.

Winds started after midnight here and dramatically warmed the air from ~75 to ~87°F. Likely katabatic winds.

Can confirm.

Oof.

Good morning: light of sunrise reflecting off the smoke.

Today starts an oppressive heat wave. At least the humidity is low. The smoke from California fires is thin today so not getting much help from it.
August Complex smoke this afternoon. Silver lining is the smoke cooled the air temperature down several degrees.

Large ash flake that landed in my safe backyard — over a dozen miles away from the August Complex on the Mendocino National Forest. This had a lot of atmospheric lift to make it this far. You can see the leaf pattern!

Frosty garden grown hot peppers (from the freezer) about to become hot sauce. We harvest over the summer and freeze until ready.

Unusual weather in NorCal but it is keeping daytime temps cooler than yesterday. The overnight low was about 80°. It is currently 81°. Lightning to the south and west of us (on the Mendocino NF).
The last two days of 110°F heat has also resulted in our cultivated native California grapes turning to raisins on the vine.
110°F yesterday and today. The avocados we planted 2-3 years ago transpire water more than they can replenish from the ground and so their leaves desiccate and die. Especially the young leaves on the Bacon (1) variety and random adult leaves on the Mexicola (2) variety. ☹️


Warmer than usual weather means Peppers are rapidly sprouting. We direct seeded this year as an experiment.

I’m experimenting with Meteobridge Templates and Siri Shortcuts so Siri can tell me about the weather just by pulling data off the local network data logger. Works pretty good!

Sunset over the Pacific. Two versions, no filter, just different exposure settings. iPhone 11 Pro 2x. Northern California.


Cooler weather means it’s time to check your tire pressure! A bit low as they need 32 PSI.