Hollister
– Rainy season? What rainy season?
Hollister – Rainy season? What rainy season?
As Hollister residents have no doubt noticed, the past few months have been exceptionally dry. From November through March – when Hollister typically receives 80 percent of its annual rainfall – only 4.68 inches of rain fell here. In a a normal year, Hollister receives 11.32 inches during that five-month period. Average annual rainfall here is 13.72 inches.
The clear, sunny skies have made some locals very happy. Hollister resident Tom Castillo said he’s taken advantage of the weather by dragging his Harley-Davidson out of the garage as often as possible.
“It’s great to be able to ride it around,” Castillo said. “I like being able to take off to Monterey and Santa Cruz.”
It’s not just Castillo who’s spending more time in the great outdoors. Hikers and others have been flocking to Pinnacles National Monument in the past several weeks, causing park attendance to dramatically increase over last year.
Brian Lucas, owner of Off the Chain Bikes, said sunny weather is also encouraging more people to buy bicycles from his store. Lucas said his March sales, in particular, are substantially higher than usual.
Lucas himself is an avid cyclist, but he said the weather hasn’t a big effect on his own riding habits.
“I’ll go out whatever the weather is, but there are a lot of people who don’t have the attire to do that,” Lucas said.
Not everyone is quite as happy about the lack of rain. Greg Renz, owner of Agco Hay Company, said he’s going to have to reduce the size of his herd of cattle, because he hasn’t been able to grow as much feed as he needs.
“And of course, it’s hurt our overall business, because we ship hay year-round,” Renz said. “We’re really concerned.”
Cliff Williams of the Monterey-San Benito unit of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the dry season has also increased the fire risk. In the last week, three local controlled burns have gotten out of control, burning more than 70 acres, he said.
Cal Fire plans to open local summer fire stations in mid-April, about a month earlier than usual, he said.
The dry weather means wild grasses haven’t grown to their normal height, but it’s still tall enough for a fire to spread, Williams said.
“We don’t do readings in the winter, but my gut feeling is that the brush is going to be drier than normal,” Williams said.
Brian Tentinger of the National Weather Service attributed the dry winter weather to consistently high pressure up and down the West Coast. That pressure prevents rainy weather from developing, and it pushes existing rain clouds to the north, he said.
The dry weather came as a surprise to some. Castillo, who plays in the city’s adult softball league, said the league will start playing on Monday. That’s three weeks later than normal, because league officials didn’t want any games to get rained on.
“But we didn’t really have any rain to avoid,” Castillo said.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or ah*@fr***********.com.
