Despite the decrease in average rainfall of 2.78 inches for the month of February there is no obvious signs of significant drought. We only received 0.55 inches of rain yesterday which is disappointing since well over an inch had been predicted for the previous 36 hours. Difficult to ascertain effect of dry weather with no deciduous trees or shrubs leafing out yet. In addition to dry weather we have had atypically cold weather periods this winter which may affect budding.