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Weather & Climate

A collection of 284 issues

The Rare Time When a Rainy Forecast is Unwelcome

Overall, we've had a warm spring. In an environment where winter freezes are normal perhaps one third of the nights between December and February, we saw just four below-freezing lows in January and three in February. March saw only one night drop below freezing at our weather station,

Budbreak, 2015: Early, like 2014. Cue the frost alarms.

By the end of last week, we'd seen significant budbreak at the tops of our hills among early sprouting varieties like Viognier, Syrah, Grenache Blanc and (below) Grenache. Budbreak each year starts the clock ticking on the growing season. It typically happens between mid-March and mid-April, depending on

Photo Essay: Green, Green, Green

Normally, the sign at the edge of our head-trained Mourvedre vineyard just outside our tasting room is to protect people from a twisted ankle, should they stray off the tarmac. Now, we're worried we might lose them in the cover crop! The growth in the vineyard's

Another way in which Paso Robles is cooler than you think

This week, fresh on the heels of the wonderful storms that blew through last weekend, headlines from around California have made a quick about-face to resume talking about what has been so far a warm, dry 2015 overall. The LA Times warned of powerful winds and record high temperatures for

Community Roundup: Major Awards for Qupe and L'Aventure, Imminent Rain, Snow in the Rhone, and New Direct Shipping Opportunites

Last year, I debuted a weekly feature on the blog called Weekly Roundup, focusing on interesting news from our communities (Rhone and Paso Robles), fun articles that we'd found on the world of wine, and pieces from other social media channels that we thought would interest a wider

Rainfall whiplash: a less optimistic drought assessment after a record-dry January

In mid-December, we seemed set for a great rainfall winter. A series of storms had dropped 7.75 inches over three weeks, with measurable rainfall fifteen different days of twenty-two and no more than two consecutive rain-free days. We were ahead of our annual averages, and the winter felt promising:

Weekly Roundup for December 22nd: Drinking Better, Wine's Off Days, Anniversaries, and So Much Green

This week, as you've probably heard, was the last week of the holiday-buying season. Yet in between the endless lists of the right wines for holiday gift giving were some truly interesting tidbits. Our favorites of the week are below: An amazing time-lapse video of the changing weather

Weekly Roundup for December 15th: 8000 Years of Wine Storage, Months of Great Press for Paso, and a Week of Rain

This last week, it seems we've been dominated by stories about our rain. Whether it's in its pre-precipitation anticipation or its post-fall analysis, it's clear that California is excited about the unusual moisture falling from the sky and curious to know whether it makes

Assessing the Impacts of Last Week's Rain

We're in a peaceful interlude between two significant storms. The sun may be thin and wintery, but it's (mostly) out. The rain that fell on Thursday and Friday is soaking in. Another storm is on its way, but won't arrive until mid-day Monday. We

Previewing a potentially massive series of Pacific storms

Each winter, we wait to hear the words "the storm door is open". What this means is that the jet stream, which brings weather systems across the pacific toward North America, has dropped far enough south that the moisture it contains streams over California instead of over the