Hugo Bryan Castillo
Assistant Editor
Laura Bucio
Staff Writer
As the rain gave us weeks of wetness and cold, the sun has finally begun to shine on Southern California, promising warm days ahead.
“The rain will move north as we get into spring,” said Bill Mork, state climatologist for the California Department of Water Resources. “We will get more drier as we get into April.”
One of the wettest winters on record, the rain has left the grounds of Southern California muddy and caused miserable mudslides, accidents, floods and destruction.
However, this spring it is expected to be much milder.
The average temperature last week was in the low 70s. As the winds continue to blow toward Northern California, the temperature around La Verne will jump into the low 80s in coming days, Mork said.
While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration puts the past couple of months among the wettest on state record, droughts that plagued other parts of the nation will most likely continue across the Northwest into the Rockies.
Short-term droughts had been of particular concern in California.
“There are several factors that affect the weather,” said Harvey Good, professor of biology at the University of La Verne.
A drastic shift of the jet stream from the northwest United States to Southern California was also a major factor in the excessive amount of rain we received here recently, Good said.
Steven Vanderburg, forecaster for the National Weather Service in San Diego, added: “Basically, we’ve been having so much rain due to a reverse of pattern. The jet stream dove real south, instead of going to Oregon or Washington, it came to Southern California.”
California has been known to have bizarre weather patterns, and the past winter was just one example. But Vanderburg said that the rainfall is actually good for the entire state because the West was experiencing a drought.
“It is all part of our weather variation,” said Jay Jones, professor of biology and biochemistry at the University. “But it’s great.”
Some after-effects of the winter’s heavy rainfall, however, could be less than healthy.
A major concern is the spread of the West Nile Virus.
“All the excess water makes it easier for the mosquitoes to reproduce,” Good said.
But at least for now it looks like we can put those umbrellas away.
Hugo Bryan Castillo can be reached at hcastill@ulv.edu. Laura Bucio can be reached at laurab2003@hotmail.com.
Journalism operations manager at the University of La Verne. Production manager and business manager of the Campus Times.