Until now, the "Godzilla El Niño" year of 1982-83 had stood as the Northern Sierra's wettest season on record, with an index of 88.5.īy Wednesday, the 2016-17 index, boosted by the epic deluges of December, January and February, had reached 88.2. Individual station data are for April 13, 2017. The eight stations and their approximate daily precipitation totals - in some cases, the index uses gauges whose readings are not online or are not up to date - are below. The index itself is the average of the total precipitation for the current water year recorded at the eight stations. Those basins are the source of most of the water captured by the Central Valley Project and State Water Project and are key to the state's annual water supply. The eight sites the Department of Water Resources uses in its Northern Sierra eight-station index are scattered across the Sacramento, Feather and American river watersheds (see sidebar). The index, which goes back to 1921, covers the rainy season from Oct. Those watersheds feed about half of California's largest reservoirs and are key to the state's annual water supply. The index is an average of the total precipitation - both rain and snow - recorded at mostly high-elevation sites scattered across the Sacramento, Feather and American river basins. On Thursday, the state Department of Water Resources announced that its Northern Sierra Eight-Station Index had surpassed its previous record. In one very important part of the state, the answer is a definite "yes." You can see the breakdown of rainfall totals for the various parts of the state below.You already know it's been a wet winter. In contrast, most Southern California cities were over 75-percent of normal, and went all the way up to about 150-percent of normal. Other portions of Northern California received anywhere from about 40-80 percent of normal rainfall. The Northern, Central and Southern Sierra only received about 58-62 percent of the normal rainfall for the year. Northern California rainfall totals for the year were well below average, especially through the Sierra, which is where the majority of the state’s water supply comes from. Some cities actually climbed above average while others were only slightly below. Even with the few months of very dry weather, we actually were able to catch back up to average in many Southern California cities. Now that we covered the cliff notes version of the rain activity this past year, let’s discuss totals for the year. Similar conditions took place during June as temperatures began really warming up. Warmer and drier weather took us into May, where we saw light rain at times. Unfortunately, this was not the case for the rest of the state, and drought conditions began creeping back into Central and Northern California during those months.Īccording to the California Department of Water Resources, state-wide snowpack conditions at the end of April were below 50-percent of average for that date.
Luckily, many storms during March and April brought significant rainfall to Southern California that made up for the precipitation deficits from January and February. For the month of February, Burbank Airport tied as the 5th driest, Van Nuys Airport tied as the 2nd driest and Lancaster Airport tied as the 4th driest. Many portions of the state even recorded the driest February on record, while we normally see the highest precipitation totals during these two months.Īccording to the National Weather Service (NWS), “most places received less than 5-percent of normal rainfall in February.” Los Angeles Airport received only a trace of rain that month, tying for the driest February since the records began in 1944.ĭowntown Los Angeles received 0.04 inches of rain for the month, tying February 1899 for the 10th driest February since the records began in 1877. To recap, the state experienced several cold storms between November and December, bringing above-average precipitation to many locations through Southern California.įollowing that, dry conditions took us through the heart of winter in January and February, which are normally the wettest months of the year. Let’s take a look back at the 2019 to 2020 rainfall season and review the precipitation data we saw over the course of the year. Currently, 60-percent of the state is now under drought conditions - mainly central & northern California.Storms this spring brought significant rainfall back to southern California while northern California remained mostly dry.February 2020 was one of the driest on record for many locations in southwestern California.Southern California experienced above-average precipitation in November and December 2019.
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