The DesertUSA Wildflower Report 2010
published by DesertUSA.com
Indio, CA – Last night the Coachella Valley and regional desert cities received more rain. According to the rainfall totals, the California desert areas received quite a bit of rain over the past week in these cities (Palm Springs, Thousand Palms, Rancho Mirage and Thermal, Borrego Springs). The rainfall totals below are for the period of Jan. 17th – 23rd. We received about .02 rainfall last night/this morning.
What does this mean for the wildflower season? Normally rainfall has to occur in the fall and winter months in order to germinate the wildflower seeds. While the rain will help many of the native cactuses, trees and other plants, it did not occur early enough to produce a spectacular wildflower season. You will still be able to enjoy the native blooms which are present every year. The rains will help the native plants, so the bloom this year may be more abundant than last year. What you probably won’t see are the sprawling carpets of wildflowers covering the desert floor that are seen when fall and winter rain occurs.
RAINFALL STORM TOTAL SUMMARY...PRELIMINARY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA 600 PM PST SAT JAN 23 2010 7 DAY STORM RAINFALL TOTALS FOR THE PERIOD BEGINNING: 1000 AM PST SUN JAN 17 2010 ENDING: 500 PM PST SAT JAN 23 2010COACHELLA VALLEY-
500 PM PST SAT JAN 23 2010PALM SPRINGS AIRPORT 4.51
THOUSAND PALMS 4.05
RANCHO MIRAGE 3.89 **
THERMAL AIRPORT 2.50RAINFALL STORM TOTAL SUMMARY...PRELIMINARY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA 1050 AM PST THU JAN 21 2010SAN DIEGO COUNTY DESERTS- 1030 AM PST SAT JAN 23 2010 BORREGO DESERT 4.89