North Coast in store for a warm, dry weekend

North Coast residents are in for another cloudless, warm weekend, thanks to a resilient high-pressure ridge that has thwarted winter moisture and generated springlike temperatures.

Highs this weekend should be in the mid-70s, about 10 degrees above average for this time of year, according to the National Weather Service. Rain is not on the horizon until at least the middle of next week, and even then forecasters are doubtful it will materialize.

The nice weather has brought additional customers out to local nurseries as they seek to get started on their spring planting, even though winter is officially still around for almost two more weeks. Call it spring training for the green thumb set.

“Business is good when the weather is good,” said Fred King, owner of King’s Nursery in Santa Rosa. “Any nice weekend we have in March makes our day.”

King cautioned that it’s a bit on the early side to purchase summer vegetable starts, such as tomatoes, which would flourish better around the middle of April. He noted the ground is still cold for the next month and the plants “will kind of languish.”

King said that his grandfather long ago wouldn’t start selling tomatoes at the family nursery until May 15. “He had the luxury,” King noted, in the era before competition with big-box retailers.

Those still interested in planting vegetables that are better suited to an early spring can avail themselves of lettuces, artichokes and blueberries.

“There’s an awful lot of enthusiasm over vegetables,” said Bruce Shanks, owner of the Cottage Gardens of Petaluma. “We grow what we sell, and a lot of it is not ready yet.”

Shanks reminds his customers that frost season is not over until mid-April despite the sunny skies that permeated the region over the past weeks.

This February, the daily average high was 67 degrees. During the month, there were 26 days above the average daily high of 61 for February over the past 30 years.

Rainfall also has lagged this year. The average precipitation for January and February is 13.45 inches, but the region has only received 4.31 inches where rainfall is monitored at Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport.

That has affected vineyard workers as the early bud break has forced crews to finish pruning as soon as possible. So far the season is running anywhere from 10 to 14 days early.

Grape growers are now weighing whether to mow their cover crops between the rows so that the vines will be able to better receive water when the rains eventually come, said Douglas McIlroy, director of winegrowing Rodney Strong Wine Estates.

“I would love to see some rain,” McIlroy said.

The immediate forecast, however, is not encouraging.

“The computer models have been showing rain two weeks out, but the (high-pressure) ridge pushes it all to the north,” said Austin Cross, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Such ridges have been parked off the coast of California for most of the past two winters, funneling seasonal storms up into Canada and deepening the state’s persistent drought. The silver lining has been mild weather for outdoor enthusiasts, who will have more evening daylight starting Sunday with the switch to daylight saving time.

“It should be a nice, pleasant weekend,” Cross said.

By Tuesday, temperatures should start to cool, Cross said.

The region has received 80 percent of its normal rainfall since July 1, thanks to two big storms in December and February, but the rest of the winter has been dry.

News Researcher Janet Balicki and Staff Writer Bill Swindell contributed to this report.