Last “river” is closer to a “stream” with minimal rainfall in Menlo Park

The prediction for steady rain showers overnight didn’t live up to expectations — some would say luckily. InMenlo weather watcher Dennis Nugent record just 0.15″ in his manual rain gauge, bringing the month to date to 9.31″ and the year-to-date to 23.53″. (Note: a new  digital gauge has been purchased.)

Last year at this time, the year-to-date was 13.01″ — a huge improvement over the January 2021 year-to-date of just 1.52″.

The near daily moisture this January means local trees are continuing to fall. InMenlo contributing photographer Robb Most encountered this downed Oak while hiking in the Russian Ridge OSP.

He emails: “What struck me to photograph this was that I was on the Ancient Oaks trail and there are such beautiful Oaks in that grove. This beautiful ancient oak feel and blocked the trail which is the shortest of the three loops up there. You can see the trail post below the branches. Very sad to see one of these beautiful Oaks go.”

Photo by Robb Most (c) 2023