ice, but only a little

There's high pressure heading for northern California, and that means a north wind.  North of Santa Cruz are the eponymous mountains, and south is the Monterey Bay.  Both are the sources of our air conditioning, depending on the season, because both can be the source of temperature inversions.  In this season the mountains are the cool source, for the air at the summit gets pushed gently down the gulches until it slides under the ocean air.  Where the gulches hit the coastal flats we can have frost from mid-October through mid-May.

The iciest winter in recent memory was December of 1990, where for 5 days the arctic wind blew at us.  Every succulent plant died, and many citrus even far south of us.  The street next to the post office was covered in ice after a water main froze.  Puddles of water in parking lots stayed frozen for five days.

Today was mild by comparison even to this year, but there was a skin of ice in the buckets against the back porch until 09:00, and the frost remained on roofs another half hour after that despite the bright shining sun.  

Happy Boxing Day