NEVADA CITY, Calif. February 2, 2017 – Another series of wet and windy weather systems will bring more precipitation to Northern California through the next seven days. Precipitation totals are above average, drought monitor maps have faded from ominous blood red shades to innocuous transparency. But, we are not quite there yet when it comes to making up the water deficit caused by four years of drought.
According to the National Weather Servoce in Sacramento, “We saw record rainfall and snow amounts across northern California in the month of January. Below is the Sierra Nevada 8,5 and 6 station indexes monthly bar graphs. You can see that all of these locations received between 3-4 times their monthly average for January. While these precipitation values have definitely put a big dent into our 5-6 year precipitation deficit, see bucket graphic above, it’s the problem of too much too fast!”
NWS continues, saying “The snow that arrived with the storms has also been impressive. The states snow water equivalent totals have transitioned from the below average numbers at the beginning of January, to well above average to date 173%, to near average for April 1 at 109%. However, there is a lot of time before April 1 for this value to decrease with warm, dry weather, or increase with additional storms. Time will tell.“