Dripping

We have an unusual weather condition up here in Foggy Redwood Country. When it the sun is out, it is sunny. When the rain falls, it is raining. And when a heavy fog rolls in, it is dripping.

I can stand in the meadow where the Blue Barn sits, and see the fog swirling above me. The ground is dry beneath my feet. However, a few yards behind the Barn, it is dripping.

I learned something a week ago, when my niece and I visited the John Muir Redwood Forest just north of San Francisco. I learned that our very tall redwood trees collect moisture from the fog on their needles, and then those needles funnel those tiny droplets down the needles to the end of the branch, and then to the forest floor, where they are picked up by the very shallow root system of the redwood tree.

If you walk down our road in a heavy fog you will be drenched in minutes, as I found out the other day, in my jacket that was not waterproof. "Dripping" is like the first few minutes of an approaching thunderstorm. Big, fat drops of wetness falling from above in uneven patterns, quickly soaking the ground. Dry ground over here, puddles over there. The soft patter of heavy drops splatting on the matted forest floor. That is "dripping", up here in foggy redwood country.

In fact, sounds like its going to drip all night.

Yep.