Warm and comfortable this afternoon on California’s north coast, but way-warm just about everywhere else out here.

The LA area is excepting a heat wave this weekend, temperatures in triple digits — this on the heels of exceedingly warm.
From the LA Times:

The first eight months of 2014 were the warmest on average in California’s history since record-keeping began in 1895, federal scientists announced this week.
The average temperature was 62.6 degrees in California over the time period, coming in at 1.1 degrees hotter than the previous high and more than 4 degrees warmer than the 20th century average, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported.

Reportedly, too, temperatures down south the next few days will be 15-20 degrees above normal.

(Illustration found here).

And we’re dry, too, way-way dry. Now the midst of a three-year drought, state reservoirs on average, only about a third full, some better than others, while rainfall totals last winter about 40 percent of normal.
The pined-hopes of any decent-sized El Niño coming to wet down the gloom appears less likely every day.

And now heat trumps ‘Got Milk?’ At least in the organic diary business — the drought is apparently destroying California’s organic dairy farms, a big chunk of a huge, and expanding, organic farming industry. The drought kills grass, and organic dairies require a shitload of grass (to be federally-recognized organic), and with no grass…
From Grist:

Ward, Rosie, and their three grown children operate California Cloverleaf Farms and Full Circle Dairy, two organic dairies milking 500 cows each, in addition to a pasture-raised chicken operation and organic olive and almond orchards.
In 2004, they joined Organic Valley — the largest organic, farmer-owned co-op in the nation with sales topping over $900 million annually — and began shipping their milk to grocery stores across the country.
Their family’s dairy history runs much deeper though: Ward’s grandfather, Benjamin, began farming in 1896.
Original glass bottles from his first enterprise, Walnut Grove Creamery, line the Burroughs’ dining room mantle alongside Organic Valley milk cartons emblazoned with portraits of Ward, Rosie, and their children and grandchildren.
The Burroughs are literally the face of the company.
But they’re in trouble.
Last year was the first in their entire farming history that the Burroughs didn’t make enough money to pay the bills, prompting them to close their third dairy operation.
And they’re not alone.
California’s ongoing three-year drought – the worst ever in recorded history — combined with slow responses from co-ops, has doomed many of the state’s dairies, raising questions about how just sustainable this form of “sustainable farming” really is — economically, ecologically, and otherwise.
Pastured dairies throughout California, once exemplary models of sustainable and organic farming, are in jeopardy of imminent collapse.

And don’t choke on that dry cone.