In the last couple of months, California has been hit with a lot more water than we’re used to. Here in Sonoma County we’ve had excesses of 18” of rain and that was just since January 1st. Other parts of the state got even more.
The sun has been out for over a week now. Let’s look at how much of that water stayed in the ground. The following charts show relative soil moisture content measured by soil moisture probes.
Location 1:
Here’s a site with a loamy/moderate textured soil. The rain did a good job pumping up the relative water content.
Location 2:
Here’s a site with light texture. This site may have taken on a lot of water, but it rapidly percolated into the deep soil, leaving it as it was prior to the rain.
Here’s a look at the different depth levels.
Location 3:
Here’s a heavy soil texture. Notice that the soil here was already at field capacity thanks to the rain we got in late 2022. It may have gotten a lot of rain, but the soil couldn’t take on anymore.
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Start thinking about frost season now
Last year's frost season was pretty horrendous. If you didn't get hit yourself, most likely you know someone who did. Don't get caught unprepared again. Order a frost alert system now and AV will have it all set up and ready for you well before budbreak.
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