It remains to be seen whether this impressive two-week-plus storm parade is the beginning of the end of California's multi-year drought, or whether it's just a temporary drought dent. NOAA's precipitation outlook through March calls for below-average precipitation in Southern California, but mixed signals on whether the first three months of 2023 will be wet or dry in Northern California. But it's not clear how long that will last. That would provide at least a break for the flood-weary state. Longer-range models suggest a drier pattern may finally set in for a while by the final week of January. California can't hope to erase the drought if the state lurches back to the persistently dry pattern from the past few winters and springs. That's when the snowpack typically reaches its peak before it begins to melt and recharge the state's reservoirs through summer.Ī somewhat wet pattern needs to last through spring in order to keep chipping away at the long-term drought. Sierra snowpack is not only well above average for mid-January, but is also nearing or even topping the typical value for early April. This storm siege has boosted some state reservoirs above levels typical for this time of year. (Kent Porter/The Press Democrat via AP)Īnother dry rainy season from fall 2019 into spring 2020 left the state's snowpack in sorry shape by May 2020 and kicked off the current multi-year drought. Gavin Newsom holds a news conference in the parched basin of Lake Mendocino in Ukiah, Calif., Wednesday, April 21, 2021, where he announced he would proclaim a drought emergency for Mendocino and Sonoma counties. A water year - from July through June - is how hydrologists and water managers in California organize the year around the state's wet season.Ĭalifornia Gov. It's over half their average annual rainfall (22.89 inches), and also more rain than during the 12-month water years in 2019-21. ![]() That's the city's wettest 15-day stretch in over 156 years, according to Bay Area meteorologist Jan Null. The driest month in San Francisco County is July with 0.04 inches of precipitation, and with 4.72 inches January is. The resulting rainfall totals from these storms have been staggering and produced damaging flooding and mudslidesįor example, downtown San Francisco has picked up over 12 inches of rain from Dec. Average Rainfall for San Francisco County. The recent siege of California storms has dumped more rain in parts of the state than in entire recent years in what has been a rather stunning turn of events in the drought-stricken area.Īt least five separate rounds of rain and mountain snow have drenched the Golden State since the day after Christmas. The California Department of Water Resources averages data from 19 weather stations spanning the state and generates averages for three regions.Sign up for the Morning Brief email newsletter to get weekday updates from The Weather Channel and our meteorologists. Rainfall in California from a monthly perspectiveĭecember and January rainfall totals have been above average in several parts of the state. Napa was nearly 5 inches higher at 15.19 inches, and Sonoma's 15.8 inches beat its previous high of 12.56 inches. Downtown Oakland received 18.33 inches, topping the previous high by 8 inches. ![]() Lorber's calculations put all three locations well above their former records. 16 in areas around Oakland, Napa and Sonoma. Records were toppled for the 22-day period from Dec. That doesn't mean records weren't broken around the state, Lorber said. San Francisco's total rainfall of 17.64 inches was second to that rainy season more than 160 years ago, when the same time period saw 18.49 inches. "Downtown San Francisco is our only site that has records that far back." ![]() 16) due to even more exceptional rainfall in the Great Flood from December 1861 to January 1862," National Weather Service meteorologist Jeff Lorber said. ![]() "Downtown San Francisco did not see record rainfall in this period (Dec. The data, from Oregon State University’s PRISM product, is based on the network of real-time precipitation sensors spread throughout California.įor some cities.
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