Climate whiplash, it's enough to drive a farmer crazy. Growing premium wine grapes is especially hard hit because a slight variation in the elements of climate (temperatures, wind, sunshine, precipitation, humidity) can have a noticeable impact on the final product.
Climate whiplash is a term used to define the crazy, variable weather we're seeing in California and other places. It means extreme drought, extreme precipitation, extreme temperatures. That is, extreme variability in the weather.
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| Mid-June, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County image from pressdemocrat.com |
Looking at the last few years for northern California
Early 2022
The driest January, February, and March in over 100 years. December into early March are traditional, when NorCal gets most of its water in the form of rain and snow. Santa Rosa, in the middle of Sonoma County, received about two inches of rain, when the historical average is 17 inches for those three months. We have had other wintertime droughts, but not lasting this long.
Summer 2022
A long, deadly heatwave killed almost 400 people statewide. This is the first extended heat wave in my memory. Typically, Sonoma County will see a couple of days of heat, then the cool ocean fog makes its way in to break it up. This was also the first time I wished I had A/C in the house.
As of this date, the hottest California summers on record were, in order:
2021, 2017, 2018, 2022, 2006, 2016, 2015, 1961, 1996, 2020
Winter of 2022-23
Massive rain and snow events throughout the state. By April 2023 the average snowpack was 237% of average.
Summer 2023
The season got off to a very cool start, lasting for weeks, instead of days, which is more typical.
Winter of 2023-24
Another wetter than average year with some snow events dumping many feet in a few days. Rainfalls were much higher than average for Southern California.
Summer 2024, as of July
According to forecasts, we are nearing the end of a long, extended heat wave, the second in three years. Several places in the interior, away from any cooling breezes from the ocean, are setting all-time record high temperatures.
California is also off to a very early fire season, partially related to the extreme temperatures. This was something we rarely saw over a decade or two ago. It was something that started in about September a few years ago. This year it is already fully underway with several major fires in northern California, a large one in Sonoma and one in Napa. Luckily, the Sonoma & Napa ones were in areas where few people lived.
Through July 10, 2024, there have been 3,540 wildfires in the state. That's about average. The last five-years average acres burned YTD is about 35,000; this year it's 207,000.
Climate vs weather
Climate requires a longer period of weather data to say the climate has changed. Also, California weather data only goes back to the late 1800s. Regardless, our Mediterranean climate is currently out of whack.
Farming
Whether this is permanent or a temporary anomaly, this is something the grape farmers must adapt to. You can't rely on having enough water or reasonable temperatures. A major reason the Sonoma area does so well with premium wine grapes is counting on the temperatures to ripen the grapes correctly. If grapes ripen too slowly or quickly, there can be problems. If it rains too heavily in the early autumn or late spring there can be problems.
Grape growers here count on the rains ending at a certain time in the spring, temps getting warm at a certain time, moderate temperatures for growing, and no early autumn long, rainy periods. I'm not sure how much of this we can still depend on.
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| In Death Valley, as I'm writing this on July 9th |
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