• first inhabitants: Coast Miwok and Pomo peoples
  • tideland collectors, acorn gatherers, game hunters
  • 8000y
  • tracked time via seasonal abundance of food and moon phases
• Hoo-koo-e-ko and Tamalko; He’-koo-las developed first light, Sunwoman

weather and climate

• winter rain and summer drought; central coast
  • constant temperature: average 10-13*C between midwinter and midsummer
  • “one of the most equitable climates on the continent”
  • high moisture; few extreme weathers
    • occasional frost and ice
    • almost no snow
  • high presence of wind and fog

Ocean Currents

• North Pacific High
  • mass of cool air 1k off CA coast
  • migrates longitudinally seasonally
  • large pressure system
  • from Northern Hemispheric winter (sun @ 23.5*S, Tropic of Capricorn) → High migrates from coast of Mexico (23.5*N, Tropic of Cancer) → northward to 38*N (Point Reyes); returns to coast of Mexico next winter
    • pulse-like; stabilizes climate and deflects storms in summer, then leaves susceptible in winter
    • “huge fan”; high → low pressure air movement moves CW in Northern Hemisphere/Pacific Ocean surface waters
• North Pacific Gyre
  • multiple oceanic currents CW on margin in response to NPH
  • California Current: wide, east current into shore; slow air current
    • surface waters are important in Point Reyes climate; average 12*C with extremes of 8.8–16
  • North Pacific Drift
    • Kuroshio Current: North into Japan, then NE into NP
    • Oyashio Current: northern, cold subarctic wind

California Current periods: Upwelling, Oceanic, and Davidson Countercurrent

• Upwelling Period:
  • spring and summer average; extremes in February to September
    • peaks in June/July
  • longest period and largest influence
  • upwelling of nutrient rich water into nearshore
  • spring winds move waters offshore and induce cold waters from sub-182m to fill niche
  • June/July waters can be 8.8–13*C; coldest on west coast
    • creates peninsula fog
    • high plankton production
• Oceanic Period:
  • September and October, with about a month of extended leeway
  • end of northwest winds and southward water flow; inshore and northward flows of subtropical water allowed
  • annual highs for water temperature and salinity; low plankton production
  • 15.6*C; warms during El Niño events
• Davidson Countercurrent:
  • cc: a subsurface back eddy on the current which flows north between current and shore
  • period in winter alongside winter storms
  • low plankton production
  • low surface salinity; storm runoff
  • low temperatures and evaporation rates
  • “negative upwelling”/downwelling caused by south/onshore winds
  • in intense periods, causes warm off-coast temperatures and high rainfall
• periods are overlaid by local gyres and currents: Gulf of Farallones, etc.