*(01-12) 18:00 PST SAN FRANCISCO* -- High-temperature records fell like
imaginary raindrops in the Bay Area on Monday, among the warmest mid-January
days ever.

It's also shaping up to be one of the driest Januarys ever - if not the
driest. There's been almost no rain this month, and none is in sight, the
National Weather Service says.

The thermometer hit 74 in downtown San Francisco, breaking the old record
for Jan. 12 of 67, set in 1948.

"We broke the records pretty much everywhere," said weather service
meteorologist Brian Tentinger. "Breaking them wasn't hard. This wasn't
extreme heat, but it was very abnormal for January."

The heat marks got their biggest thumping in Santa Rosa, where it was 84
degrees. The old mark was 66, set in 1967.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/12/BA3C157RFN.DTL

California agriculture in general, almond growers, and beekeepers are facing
the potential of a trying summer.  If the current weather patterns continue,
our flowering season will be early and brief.  Some native and introduced
plants are blooming a month early. A dry Calif summer means that there will
be little bee forage, and that Calif beekeepers will be faced with the
quandary of whether they should invest in feeding their bees if next year's
pollination rental price drops.

Oddly, the almonds, which bloomed about 10 days late last year due to
unseasonal cold, don't look like they are going to bloom exceptionally
early. As I deliver bees to the almonds, I have some "indicator trees" that
I watch.  Some of these trees are volunteers along the roadside, that always
bloom a week before the main orchards, and others are the earlies varieties
at the U.C. experimental almond orchard in Arbuckle, which my bees have
pollinated for over 20 years.  These trees are currently in bloom, and the
earliest commercial almond varieties are just getting to "popcorn" stage of
buds as of yesterday.  So bloom may start about a week early.

Randy Oliver, reporting from the Golden State, where our governor has
proposed taxing veterinary bills in order to help balance the budget.
Better than Hollywood!

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