I'd personally rather be dealing with a bit of cooler weather and odd rains than the heat, drought, wildfires or tornadoes that other parts of the country are experiencing. Weather is just weather, and it changes from year to year or day to day. Be thankful you aren't a roofer or do concrete work for a living, they're more affected by these late rains than the average gardener is. Although it might not hurt to hedge your bets and add some more cool tolerant cherry tomatoes to your mix for this summer!

I agree with bahia. I wilt in the heat ---- I'd rather have these cool temps than than the heat. That said, we're also growing tomatoes and hope to get a good harvest. We can't have it all --- given the choice, I'd choose cooler temps for my own personal comfort.

I'd rather have the cooler weather, too. Saves water!

Despite the cooler than average summer last year, our tomatoes were wonderful, and the peppers were the best ever.

I wish we could blame something as transitory as volcanic dust. But the main culprit here is probably the strong negative PDO. Without question, La Nina further potentiates the cold and wet, but even without La Nina, we haven't had a good spring for six or seven years now. There will be some occasional warmer years in the future, but we won't get back into the kind of positive PDO we had during the last few decades of the 20th century until the late 2020's at the very least. Don't hold your breath, cooler cloudier weather will be a part of life for the northern half of the West Coast for the foreseeable future.

*sigh* That's what I was afraid of. I moved here 5 years ago specifically for the better gardening climate, and now I'm thinking I might have to change my long-term backyard orchard plan by cutting out the heat lovers and adding more cool summer fruits. Apricots were borderline anyway, if I plant a pair of trees and continue to get this kind of weather I will probably never get a fruit. I haven't had a really good apricot since my Grandmother moved out of her Bakersfield home that had a tree... But I'm not willing to move to Bakersfield just for apricots ;oP

I'm wondering if the eruptions in Iceland these past couple of years were large enough to have some sort of effect.

No.

This past winter was La Nina.

Dan