California’s San Francisco had the driest January on record since 1893, with the area receiving exactly 0 inches of precipitation last month.
“The strong and persistent upper ridge which produced record warmth during January also resulted in record dry conditions
during the month,” according to the National Weather Service. “A few weak weather disturbances managed to generate isolated light rain between January 8 and 11, but at most only a few hundredths of rain was recorded during these days.”
Rain on Jan. 30 brought only 0.25 inches in some areas.
Santa Cruz also reported 0 inches of precipitation during the month.
The Sacramento Bee reported that many areas throughout the state reported the driest conditions ever in January, assuring a continuation of the four-year drought that has been plaguing California.
Last week, a reported indicated the statewide snowpack was at 25 percent of normal for the end of January, and that included the Sierra Nevada, which held the lowest snowpack ever recorded for January, the Bee said. That mountain range supplies much of the area’s fresh water.
“It will be continuing with drought conditions,” climatologist Mike Anderson told the newspaper. “We haven’t historically seen a change in February, March, and April — after a dry January — that would give sufficient conditions to erase the drought.”
Like San Francisco, Sacramento reported its driest January since records began in the 1870s, the Bee said. The average January rainfall for the city was 3.97 inches; this year, the city got 0.01 inches on one day mid-month.
Wet weather in December did help replenish the major California reservoirs, the Bee said. Although they are still significantly below average in storage, they are “better than at this time last year,” the newspaper reported.
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