Bay Area Winter Dry Spell Clouds Hopes for Busted Drought
SAN MATEO (KPIX) -- Many families spent part of their Sunday outdoors at locations like San Mateo's Harborview Park enjoying a chance to soak up the sun along waterfront trails as the forecast continues to show dry, warm days in the weeks ahead, drying up progress made late last year toward ending the drought.
The first part of 2022 has fallen behind 2020 in total precipitation according to the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences -- a disappointing turn after October and December's rain gave some hope this would be a wet year.
"I have given up on checking on the weather, I just dress for any kind of weather and then walk out," said Srishti Chandana, a San Francisco resident at Dolores Park on Sunday. "It's not too hot, not too cold, it's perfectly moderate. That's what I like."
People were expecting the warmer weather and many were excited by it. But not all.
"It's the perfect combination of what I want, open space for me to look at more than just the wall and my dog loves it here and I get to talk to people," said Marty Alperen. "I may come in the morning, I'm not really fond of the heat, probably only at 7 o'clock in the morning I come here."
Utility districts monitoring water levels gave guidance in 2021 to conserve water. This year they have asked people to continue conservation.
"We want to see what those numbers are, you know, really in February and early March and then we can make a determination about how much runoff we expect to get for the season based on how much snow and rain we get during this winter," said Andrea Pook, spokesperson for East Bay MUD.
While those out in the parks Sunday were willing to admit the hotter temperatures are something they look forward to, they will do their best to conserve as well.
"I"m excited for it, it's been cold and sad. I'm excited for it," Chandana said. "One of my new year resolutions ... this year is to set a timer for how long I take a shower."
