Weather or Not It Is Raining

Please excuse the homonym, but I couldn't help myself.  With the upcoming forecast for rain almost everyday, we are sure that the experts will be wrong at least once.  With that said, I want to arm you all with information so that you can make your own weather predictions.  The only difference between you and the weather person is that they will be getting paid to have a 50/50 chance of being right.

First off, avoid your local news and the weather channel (includes internet site).   I think if you pay attention to any of these two avenues of weather information, you'll find that it is raining in the Sahara desert.  You also need to remember that they will get better ratings with a 20% chance of rain vs. a 80% chance of a beautiful day.

What I like to use are a combination of the National Weather Service and AccuWeather.  I like the National Weather Service for their great radar images.  When you get to the radar page, select the base reflectivity loop.  From this map, you can see the direction of the storm and see if Cinnabar is in its target.

With AccuWeather, I like them for their hourly rain forecasting and also their long range forecasting.  Be sure to put in the zip code for Morgan Hill before you start which is 95038

Both sites can be wrong their fair share of times, but used together, you can get a good idea of what is going to happen.  Also, you should call someone at Cinnabar to find out what exactly is happening and what they think is going to happen.  We are in our own microclimate like much of the Bay Area and it may not even be raining.

Little Mounds of Dirt

With the recent rains, many have noticed the little mounds of dirt in the fairways. What that is is actually earthworm castings. The reason they come up in the rainy season is because the ground becomes saturated with water eliminating any oxygen that was in the soil. You tend to notice a pattern with the mounds because the worms come out where there is the least amount of resistance. In this case, they come out of old aeration holes.

There are many chemicals on the market that will kill earthworms, but there are no chemicals on the market that are labeled for earthworms. The key word being labeled. Anytime you use a pesticide, the target pest or disease must be on the label or you will be in violation which can carry a hefty fine. The other reason for not spraying them is because I would have to use an insecticide which will also kill off any beneficial insects present.