Rain?

The past three mornings I have woken up, looked out the window and wondered, "is this rain?" You might think that I am looking for rain because California is experiencing a severe drought. California has had three years of below average rainfall. To me, this is normal California living since we moved here only a year ago in the midst of the drought. All kidding aside - it is a big problem and we have been asked to voluntarily reduce our usage by 20%.

However, the drought is not the reason I have been asking myself "is this rain?" The real reason is because I am really trying to figure out if it is raining here. I've spent my whole life up to this point on the east coast and have NEVER questioned if it was raining. Back home, you know whether it is raining, and more often than not you had better head for cover.

I have been drenched by rain, a combination of rain/hail, drizzle, wintry mix, and every other type of precipitation. But I have never seen anything like the "rain?" that we have here in Half Moon Bay. It isn't falling from the sky; it is simply moisture hovering in the air, but it is much thicker than fog. For example, I took the kids for a walk in the stroller and used the wind/rain shield, which soon had drops of water flowing down it. But no drops of water ever fell on it. I had on a rain coat which also got soaked. But, there wasn't rain. Isn't that weird? The sidewalk and road were wet and small puddles had formed but it wasn't raining. I don't get it. Water is dripping from the gutters - but still, no rain is falling.

I went to the ocean to get some answers. Ha! In coastal states back east you can go to the ocean and watch raindrops fall on the ocean during storms. So, I figured the ocean could clear up the question of rain for me. I get to the ocean and look out  - nope, no drops falling on the water. But, water is blowing around in the air like someone sprayed a mist of water from a bottle. What the heck?

Pictures from my walk to the ocean to "get answers"

Is this fog? Nope. I have experienced that here before. The first run I went on after moving here the water pooled on my eyelashes and fell like tears and my face and arms were wet but not from sweat. I have had many more runs like that one. So, I get it - the fog can sometimes be thick here. That was new for me but now I get it. I have also experienced rain here (only 2x). It is not like a rain that I am used to but a legit rain here does occasionally fall from the sky. The past couple of days it has been more than fog but less than rain.

I had to get to the bottom of this so I asked my local friend, Nicole. Her reply: "it is yucky fog rain". It is fog, but not really. It is rain, but not really.

This makes me wonder if the humidity would actually be droplets in the air back east if the air was cooler in the summer. Hmmmm. Clearly, I should have paid more attention in science class.