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Environment - San Diego Rainfall Data
John S. Stokes III
john.s.stokes3@gmail.com
https://www.instagram.com/johnstokesiii/
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Environment - San Diego Rainfall Data
John S. Stokes III
john.s.stokes3@gmail.com
https://www.instagram.com/johnstokesiii/
San Diego Rain History - Annual and Seasonal with Monthly updates - For commentary on recent rain events or ongoing rain activity see Weather Notes
As a San Diego County resident I've found it hard to find a convenient place to find annual rainfall data for the City of San Diego in a useful format. Most records are kept by calendar year, but San Diego's weather is highly seasonal with most of the rain falling in the November-March time period. I have developed a file of monthly San Diego rainfall data which presents the data by both calendar year AND by season (running from July to June).
The San Diego Rain Data File
The file is comma delimited, in the format of:
Year, Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec, YearTotal, NextJan, NextFeb, NextMar, NextApr, NextMay, NextJun, SeasonTotal
DOWNLOAD: File is here (sandiegorain.txt). The data will come up as a separate page. It is easy to bring the data into a spreadsheet. Save the text page. Then open a spreadsheet program and import the data from the saved text file. I try to keep the file "reasonably current".
The data was derived from NWS records going back to 1850, the link I use to have here no longer works. Some of the totals in the early years may result from incomplete data. Also the rain gage wasn't always at the same exact location, there's a story about this somewhere on the web. I recall it being in something like nine different locations since 1850. The current official NWS records go back to 1875 perhaps for this reason.
If you are looking for official NWS statistics for recent days and months, go to NWS San Diego Forecast Office (climate data).
San Diego Annual Rainfall by Calendar Year in Inches
1850 through 2023
2023 shown in red
This chart updated annually in early January
San Diego Rainfall by Season in inches (July 1 through June 30)
1850-1851 through 2022-2023
2022-2023 season shown in red
San Diego Rainfall by Season in inches (July 1 through June 30)
This chart updated annually around the end of the season
Is there major climate change going on here in San Diego as far as rain is concerned?
The long term pattern suggests there is not. According to the chart I have prepared from the data file, grouping average rainfall by decade, rainfall has been remarkably steady (see below).
However: Even if rainfall remains fairly constant on a per decade basis, there are three factors which are contributing to increased water shortages:
1)
Increased demand
2)
My San Diego Temperature page shows some increase in temperature over the long term. This means that the rate of evaporation is increasing, which in turn can increase the demand for irrigation (note: more research here is needed)
3)
Warmer temperatures cause more precipitation to fall as rain instead of snow over the mountains, and with a reduced snow pack there are reduced snow melts available to feed some reservoirs during the dry season.
Year 2023 - Posted January 1, 2024: The year came in at 14.45" well above normal and the wettest year in 4 years. This wet year brought up the annual average for the current decade to 9.01" well in line with the prior full decades! California's reservoirs are in much better shape.
Year 2022 - Posted January 1, 2023: The year came in at 5.90" well below normal and the driest year in 9 years. However, on the first day of 2023 over an inch fell at the airport and January looks to be a rainy month. So perhaps the 2022-2023 season will be better! I've now started updating the decade chart (see below) for the 2020-2029 decade. There are just three years completed in the decade so far, so while the drop-off looks ominous, there have been six other 3-year spans which have come in that low going back to 1852 and an impressive 6 year span with each year below 8" starting in 1959 and ending in 1964.
Year 2021 - Posted January 1, 2022: The year came in at 7.85" almost exactly the same as last year's 7.83". I worked out a 30 year moving average analysis and while currently at 9.61" we are a downtrend from a peak of 11.10" in 2005, but we are still well above the previous chart valley of just 8.38" in 1975. The 1975 level was the bottom of a long downtrend from 11.25" in 1944. I continue to maintain the long term pattern of rain locally here in San Diego is not undergoing a major change.
Year 2020 - Not posted: Not until 2024 I realized there was no entry for year 2020. The year came in at 7.83", somewhat below normal.
Year 2019 - Posted December 31, 2019: The decade is done, the average annual rain for the 2010's (2010 through 2019) came in at 9.63" at the San Diego Airport, thanks to a very wet 2010 and 2019. The annual average for the last 170 years is 9.86". So despite increasing sea levels, decreasing polar ice, increasing temperatures, increasing carbon dioxide, increasing methane and increasing nitrous oxide, the rains here continue to be quite constant when grouped by decade.
Year 2018 - Posted January 1, 2019:
San Diego average annual rainfall by decade in inches.
The latest decade contains 4 completed years 2020-2023.
Current California Reservoir levels updated at CA Department of Water Resources California Data Exchange Center
U.S. Drought Monitor at http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
John's Monthly San Diego Rain File Update Log March 2024 - Monthly update, posted April 1, 2024 9:00 AM February 2024 - Monthly update, posted March 1, 2024 9:44 PM January 2024 - Monthly update, posted January 31, 2024 2:35 PM December 2023 - Monthly update, posted January 1, 2024 3:15 PM November 2023 - Monthly update, posted December 1, 2023 11:02 AM October 2023 - Monthly update, posted November 1, 2023 11:19 AM September 2023 - Monthly update, posted October 4, 2023 11:40 AM August 2023 - Monthly update, posted September 1, 2023 8.08 PM July 2023 - Monthly update, posted August 1, 2023 9:46 AM June 2023 - Monthly update, posted June 30, 2023 10:56 AM May 2023 - Monthly update, posted June 1, 2023 9:42 AM April 2023 - Monthly update, posted May 1, 2023 8:54 PM March 2023 - Monthly update, posted March 31, 2023 6:37 PM March 1, 2023 11:59 AM - Rain file updated for February 2023. SD Airport 1.78" a bit below normal of 2.2". But SD has almost consistently reported less than most spots in the county! 2023 YTD 6.91" and 2022-2023 season to date 10.31". My gauge in Elfin Forest recorded 3.28" plus part of todays total, I don't record hourly to get an exact total for a given day, rather by storm event. February 13, 2023 10:21 AM - Rain file corrected for January 2023. SD Airport 5.14" (not 5.09"). 2023 total 5.14" and 2022-2023 season to date 8.53". In reviewing my own records my gauge in Elfin Forest recorded 8.54" for January not 8.63". January 31, 2023 5:31 PM - Rain file updated for January 2023. SD Airport 5.09", normal is 1.92". 2023 total 5.09" and 2022-2023 season to date 8.48". My gauge in Elfin Forest recorded 8.63" for January, wow are things green! January 1, 2023 12:10 PM - Rain file updated for December 2022. SD Airport 1.58", normal is 1.67". 2022 total 5.90" and 2022-2023 season to date 3.66". Annual and decade charts updated, see above. December 1, 2022 11:06 AM - Rain file updated for November 2022. SD Airport 1.07", normal is .79". YTD 4.32" and 2022-2023 season to date 2.08". October 31, 2022 8:14 PM - Rain file updated for October 2022. SD Airport .09", normal is .44". YTD 3.25" and the 2022-2023 season 0.74". October 1, 2022 11:05 AM - Rain file updated for September 2022. SD Airport .65", normal is .12". YTD 3.16" and the 2022-2023 season 0.65". August 30, 2022 8:11 AM - Rain file updated for August 2022. SD Airport zero, normal is around .01". YTD remains at 2.51" and the 2022-2023 season remains 0.00". Heatwave is upon us things are really going to dry out! August 1, 2022 11:13 AM - Rain file updated for July 2022. SD Airport zero, normal is around.08". YTD remains at 2.51" and the 2022-2023 season starts with 0.00". There has been some monsoonal activty, but little here in San Diego County. Quite a bit in the past couple days in the San Bernardino mountains, and a lot in parts of Arizona. Today with less storm debris from AZ, we may see some nice storms develop along the eastern spine. I felt one raindrop yesterday!June 29, 2022 5:49 PM - Rain file updated for June 2022. SD Airport a trace, pretty typical for June, the average is around .05". YTD remains at 2.51" and the season wraps up at 6.83" well below the normal of about 10" although above last season's very dry 4.51". The prior two seasons had above normal rain. The seasonal chart has been updated. June 3, 2022 9:55 PM - Rain file updated for May 2022. SD Airport 0.02" well below the normal of .37". YTD 2.51", season to date 6.83". May 21, 2022 10:48 AM - Rain file updated for April 2022. SD Airport 0.02" well below the normal of .65". YTD 2.49", season to date 6.81". April 1, 2022 10:54 AM - Rain file updated for March 2022. SD Airport 1.61" slightly above normal. YTD 2.47", season to date 6.79". The dry season is rapidly approaching, let's hope for a good storm or two this April! February 26, 2022 8:48 AM - Rain file updated for February 2022, no rain possible for the remainder of the month. SD Airport 0.70" again way below normal. YTD 0.86", season to date 5.18". January 31, 2022 9:20 PM - Rain file updated for January 2022. SD Airport 0.16" way below normal! YTD 0.16", season to date 4.48". January 1, 2022 1:32 PM - Rain file updated for December. SD Airport 2.58". 2021 Year 7.85", season to date 4.32". November 26, 2021 7:30 PM - Rain file updated for November. The month has 4 days to go but there is zero, nada, no way there will be any rain in the next four days. If the freaky thing occurs, I'll update the file again. SD Airport 0.00". YTD 5.27", season to date 1.74". This is the 9th time November has had no rain sine 1850, and the first time since 1980. November 1, 2021 9:32 PM - Rain file updated for October. SD Airport 1.01". YTD 5.27", season to date 1.74" October 1, 2021 7:35 PM - Rain file updated for September. SD Airport .50" all on one freaky day. YTD 4.26", season to date .73" September 5, 2021 9:14 PM - Rain file updated for August. SD Airport .23". YTD 3.76", season to date 0.23". August 1, 2021 9:12 AM - Rain file updated. SD Airport just a trace while most of the county received at least something. YTD 3.53", season to date 0.00 June 30, 2021 10:00 PM - Rain file updated. Just .01", YTD 3.53", season now completed 4.51". 5 of the 10 driest seasonal years have occurred in the last 20 years of the 160 year record. June 1, 2021 7:53 PM - Rain file updated. Repeat of last month, SD Airport May rainfall: 0.07". YTD 3.52", Season to date 4.50". Again well below normal. The areas of drought in western United States continues to worsen. Hoping for a productive monsoon season, sure need it! May 1, 2021 12:27 PM - Rain file updated. SD Airport April rainfall: .0.07". YTD: 3.45", Season to date: 4.43". Obviously well below normal. April was particularly disappointing as it was the last month with a reasonable potential to come through. Remember April 2020? A fat 3.68". Statistically May and June bring an average total of .32". April 1, 2021 9:51 AM - Rain file updated. SD Airport March rainfall: 1.48". YTD: 3.38", Season to date: 4.36" well below normal. March 3, 2021 8:46 PM - Oops forgot to post February. Done. Just .10" for the month at SD Airport. Was getting very dry here... today's rain helped a lot. January 30, 2021 10:05 PM - Yes it's early, I've updated the rain file for January. 1.80" for the month at SD Airport. January 1, 2020 5:05 PM - CORRECTION: while preparing the annual rain chart updates (to be posted real soon now) I discovered that the January 2020 figure in the text file was incorrect: the correct figure is .48" not .43". I have updated the text file to reflect this. This also bring the year total to 7.83". January 1, 2020 8:58 AM - Rain file updated. .60" for the month of December at SD Airport. Year total 7.83" (corrected from 7.78"). December 1, 2020 8:00 PM - Rain file updated. Just .26" for the month of November at SD Airport. However, here at Elfin Forest we had .88" in November! The rain here triggered some greening , but the last week has been super dry and a prolong Santa Ana is in the forecast with no rain at least until December 10th. November 3, 2020 3:01 PM - Rain file updated. .12" for the month of October at SD Airport. Had some days with above normal smoke / haze although better than September. Not much going on locally, had some nice sunrises and sunsets the past few days with the passage of an upper level low pressure system. October 1, 2020 12:15 PM - Rain file updated. 0.00 for the month of September at SD Airport. The third month in a row with zero rain. This year's monsoon season was a huge fail. The fire season started early across large swaths of California, Oregon and Washington. We had a couple weeks of haze, some bordering on unhealthy. To the north the air quality was worse than hazardous and still is quite bad. September 1, 2020 3:27 PM - Rain file updated. 0.00 for the month of August at SD Airport. Although August was a few degrees above normal temperature with some humidity at times, the monsoon season continued as a major disappointment. We are just a couple weeks away from the end of the season! August 4, 2020 9:06PM - Rain file updated. 0.00 for the month of July at SD Airport, the fifth year in a row of zero rain in July. Been some left over marine layer season in July providing morning dew. The monsoon season has been a total disappointment, just nothing except a few days of very minimal cumulus over the mountains. Nothing on the horizon for August. July 3, 2020 9:06 AM - Rain file updated, .14" for June, above normal for this time of the year. The July-June season came in at 13.72" well above normal and the wettest in 15 years. The chart has been updated. June 2, 2020 7:21 AM - Rain file updated. 0.02 for the month of May at SD Airport. Normal is .12" so not much difference. May gray, June gloom, not much climate change as far as this is concerned! However May did come in 4.7 degrees above normal. April 30, 2020 8:54 AM - Rain file updated. 3.68" for the month of April at SD Airport, way above normal. My Elfin Forest gauge had 6.91" for the month including .01" from dew the last couple mornings. That's close to a foot of rain in the last two months!!! March 31, 2020 10:08 PM - Rain file updated. 2.15" for the month of March at SD Airport, about 3/8" above normal. My Elfin Forest gauge had 5.03" for the month, Bankers Hill, not available thanks to the pandemic, certainly over 3" maybe 3.5". Talk of showers or a little more this weekend into next week. March 1, 2020 3:47 PM - Rain file updated. 0.38" for the month of February, second month in a row way below normal. Last year in January we had 2.80", and this year .43" and last year's February was 3.42"! So we are off to a rather dry start. Our yard is still fairly lush (weeds growing like crazy), but the drying out is well underway and irrigating some areas is now required. The NWS forecast suggests some rain later today or tonight, we've had a trace in Bankers Hill so far. Thanks to an alert viewer, I've corrected the annual rain chart to show "2020" for the current year instead of "2010". No changes required for the data. January 31, 2020 11:06 AM - Rain file updated. 0.43" for the month of January way below normal. No rain on the horizon. NOTE: On January 1, 2021 I corrected the January figure in the text file: it was .48" for the month. December 31, 2019 8:25 PM - Rain file updated. A super fat 4.03" for the month, well above normal. The year's total came to 15.28" the most in nine years! December 1, 2019 6:45 PM - Rain file updated. A fat 2.72" for the month of November, well above normal. California did very well with huge snowfalls in the resort areas like Big Bear. Any thoughts about a returning drought completely smashed, the fire season is certainly over! November 2, 2019 11:31 AM - Rain file updated, nothing for October, not a trace. There's been two major red flag warning Santa Ana events locally and elsewhere in the state, with several big fires well to the north - not at the Witch Creek / Cedar / Camp fire levels - but still destructive and deadly. Too early to start talking about a return of the drought - but on notice as the first two weeks of November look to be bone dry. September 30, 2019 3:23 PM - Rain file updated, .11" for September, roughly normal for the month. Around the second week of September the weather pattern switched from the occasional weak monsoon, to the fall pattern of weak troughs from the NW with the continuing usual small chance of tropical storm debris coming up Baja. August 31, 2019 9:37 AM - Rain file updated, nothing for August, certainly none will fall on this last day. Monsoon activity continues well below normal and talk of drought to the east is increasing. However, there is monsoonal rain to the east predicted for this coming week, will monitor. August 1, 2019 9:19 AM - Rain file updated, nothing for July accept for a trace on the 25th. Quite normal for July, the fourth year in a row with zero. Monsoon activity to the East has been light. July 1, 2019 9:28 PM - Rain file updated, .01" for June, typical for this time of the year. The July-June season came in at 12.84" nicely above normal. Will be updating the chart. May 31, 2019 8:00 PM - Rain file updated, .80" for May, well above normal. The rain was scattered throughout the month, making the month seem wetter than it really was. The weather pattern now appears to be more normal, maybe June will be our first zero month of the dry season. If June does come in at zero, we'll still end up with 12.83" for the July-June season, almost 4 times last year's seasonal total of just 3.40". May 2, 2019 11:56 AM - Rain file updated, .16" for April, well below normal and the second below normal month in a row. The top few inches of ground are now quite dry March 31, 2019 7:31 PM - Rain file updated, 1.23" for March, the first below normal month for the San Diego Airport since November. At my Bankers Hill gauge just a few miles away as the crow flies, we had 1.85", quite a difference! I'd like to see at least one good rain in April, say an inch or so as the top soil is already beginning to dry out, but statistics and the current weather pattern do not favor this. March 1, 2019 8:08 AM - Rain file updated, 3.42" for February about 1.5" above normal! I figure the SD airport already has had 10.64" for the winter season, more than the yearly seasonal average of just under 10". Here in Banker's Hill we've had 13.1" since late November, probably over 14" for the winter season. February 1, 2019 1:43 PM - Rain file updated, 2.80" for January. We've had excellent rainfall since late November, the area is as lush as I've seen it in a long time. Another storm is predicted for tomorrow. At my gauge in Bankers Hill we've had 8.6" of rain since late November and with tomorrow's storm we may reach close to the amount which falls in a year! January 1, 2019 1:16 PM - Rain file updated, 3.02" for December, well above the normal of 1.79, and 7.65" for the year, below the normal of 9.83". December 2, 2018 11:53 AM - Rain file updated, 0.81" for November about .20" below normal. San Diego airport had one of the lowest readings for San Diego county coastal and mountain areas in November, the situation for the county is better than indicated. November 1, 2018 11:58 AM - Rain file updated, 0.57" for October, exactly normal for the airport! Most of the rain at the airport fell on October 12, .49" worth, my gauge recorded .60". For the month .66" fell here. Amazingly just that rain was enough to green up things somewhat, particularly our jade plants. Been very dry since then, we'll need a good soaking in November to keep things from regressing. October 3, 2018 9:30 AM - Rain file updated, nothing for September. August 31, 2018 9:18 PM - Rain file updated. 0.02" for August - recorded at the airport on August 16, but nothing here. So .02" gets added to the file. Monsoonal moisture has been notably absent this year, very few days so far in the July-August period with storms in the mountains. The season ends around mid September and so far nothing is in the forecast. See Weather Notes about the heat (to be posted September 1) August 1, 2018 10:41 AM - Rain file updated, nothing for July except a trace on the first day - pretty normal for July. Been muggy for over a week with some monsoonal moisture over the mountains and to east in Arizona, but nothing here. June 30, 2018 3:39 PM - Rain file updated, nothing for June. The July-June rainy season measuring interval shows just 3.4" of rain for San Diego, the second driest in San Diego's history with 2001-2002 @ 2.99 being the driest. June 1, 2018 2:22 PM - Rain file updated, .12" for May, right at the NWS normal for the month; my long history has about .26" as being normal. Yesterday, I recorded just over .02" in the morning, the airport had a trace. We continue on track for the second lowest July-June rainy season total. May 1, 2018 10:26 AM - Rain file updated, 0.02" for April, obviously another below normal month. For the last 10 months we are at 3.28" at the airport, the second lowest since records began in 1850. .1"to .25" is predicted for the next day, a small morsel for this hungry Earth. March 31, 2018 9:16 PM - Rain file updated, 0.95" for March, another below normal month. California had good rains to the north and the reservoirs are in good condition. March 1, 2018 9:07 AM - Rain file updated, 0.36" for February, well below the normal of around 2". Locally I measured .34" for the month. Most areas of San Diego County coast and mountains had more. February 2, 2018 8:58 AM - Rain file updated, 1.78" for January, .2" below normal. Almost all of rain came from the one excellent storm. Been dry for the past three weeks. December 30, 2017 3:18 PM - Rain file updated, just .07" for December. This completes the driest June-December stretch in San Diego history going back to 1852, with just .19". December 3, 2017 4:35 PM - Rain file updated, just .02" for November. The NWS is saying that it is likely there will be no rain through the first two weeks of December, making this the driest start of the rainy season since 1929! My records show there was no rain in December 1929, but the following January had 3.90". This year we are showing 0.10" since the first of September. 1929 had 0.26" in September followed by no rain for the rest of the year. November 1, 2017 11:35 AM - Rain file updated, a trace for October. Last five months had just 1/10 of an inch total, not unusual. There's talk of some rain this weekend, we'll see! October 1, 2017 6:27 PM - Rain file updated, .08" for September. One more normally dry month to go then hopefully we'll see some good rains in November! September 1, 2017 8:28 PM - Rain file updated, second consecutive trace month. A few fat raindrops on the 28th from a small cell with three cracks of thunder, but not enough to register. August 1, 2017 3:45 PM - Rain file updated, a trace for July at the airport. We had one day with raindrops to just wet the ground, but my gauge failed to record anything. The ground is now seasonally dry, but overall OK, no increase in the drought level. Been some rain in the mountains but nothing particularly noteworthy. Here's hoping for something to reach the coast this month. June 30, 2017 10:51 AM - Rain file updated, .02" for June thanks to a deep drizzly marine layer on June 11, the same amount for the month I recorded. The seasonal chart for 2016-2017h as been updated, the season came in at 12.97", almost 3 inches above normal and the third year of increase in a row. June 9, 2017 10:36 PM - Rain file updated. .92" for May, nicely above normal and much needed after a couple dry months. Great shape for the summer. Note: I was away in the U.K., sorry for the late update! May 1, 2017 2:20 PM - Rain file updated. Just .01" for April at the airport. Nothing in my gauge. So after three great months of rain, we've had almost nothing for two months. Makes for an "ideal" allergy season, I'm sure feeling it! Reinhard Flick a coastal oceanographer at Scripps Oceanography kindly shared a cool graph he derived from the rain file data using October through September as the yearly interval. The graph brings out long term wetter normal and dryer than normal spells in visual from. He wrote: "The red bars are the average annual (oct-sep) averages, and the black line is the cumulative residual. This is calculated by first subtracting the long-term average (now 9.88 in from 1850 to 2016 [...]) from each annual total to first get the residual, which of course can be positive or negative depending if rainfall was higher or lower than average that year. Second, the residuals are accumulated, that is the second year is the sum of the first two, the third the sum of the first three and so on."
April 1, 2017 10:48 AM - Rain file updated. Just .08" for March, about 5% of normal. The drought code for San Diego did drop in March to just "abnormally dry" the lowest of the codes. The top inch to inch and a half of the soil is now hard and dry, while deeper down there is plenty of moisture, a reversal of recent years. Still hoping for one more good rain before the dry season intensifies, but nothing is in the forecast. March 1, 2017 7:48 AM - Rain file updated. The historic rain of February 27 with 2.34" at the airport brought the total for February to 3.71". The last three months have seen 4.22", 3.01" and 3.71" for a total of 10.94" more than a year's worth! During this time the drought code for San Diego has dropped two notches from Exceptional to Moderate, and I hope at least another notch reduction tomorrow. February 2, 2017 10:58 AM - Rain file updated. The wonderful river of water went dry on January 24, with 3.01" for the month at that time. Been bone dry since, 3.01" was the final total, well above the average of 1.89". January 18, 2017 3:43 PM - Rain file updated. The correct total for 2016 was 10.23" not 10.44". Thank you Jay Hansen for alerting about the error. The graphic for 2016 will be updated later today. January 1, 2017 5:29 PM - Rain file updated. December 4.22", more than twice the normal amount! Most of this in the second half of the month. Should be very helpful for the drought as the year came in at 10.44", the second year in a row at or slightly above normal. First year since 2010 San Diego broke 10". The U.S. Drought Monitor still has San Diego as being in "Extreme" drought. Perhaps we can finally back off to being "just" Severe? Or maybe even "just" Moderate? November 29, 2016 4:13 PM - Rain file updated. November .61", about 1/3" below normal. Some parts of the county had rain well above normal. I can confidently say there will be no rain tomorrow, this month is done. November 2, 2016 11:32 AM - Rain file updated. October just .07" well below normal, with temperature well above normal. No rain in sight for the first week or so of November. October 8, 2016 6:50 PM - Rain file updated. August was zero, September .32" thanks to the remnants of a tropical disturbance. August 1, 2016 1:36 PM - Rain text file updated, July a trace, making two trace months in a row. About 1 out of 3 years will see a June-July with 0" of rain, so this is not unusual. However, my yard sure needs rain! July 5, 2016 9:10 AM - Rain text file updated, June a trace, pretty typical for this time of the year. The 2015-2016 season came in at 11.03", about an inch above normal and the highest in five years. June 1, 2016 7:37 PM - Rain text file updated, May .44" inches of rain, .32" inch above normal. May 2, 2016 11:35 AM - Rain text file updated, April .55" inches of rain, .23" inch below normal. April 1, 2016 1:45 PM - Rain text file updated, March .76" inches of rain, about an inch below normal. March 1, 2016 10:35 AM - Rain text file updated, February just 0.05" inches of rain. February 1, 2016 12:53 PM - Rain text file updated, January 3.21" well above normal! Meanwhile northern CA has continued to received substantial rains and there has been very significant increases in reservoir levels in the northern part of the state this past month. December 31, 2015 8:47 PM - File updated, December 0.88"', about half of normal. The year came in at 9.89" almost the exactly the same as the normal amount of 9.85". There has been a slight increase in the reservoir levels in northern CA this past month, but continue well below normal throughout the state and much lower than they were at the start of the year. December 1, 2015 4:30 PM - File updated, November 1.54", about 50% above normal. YTD is 9.01" already the wettest year in four years and about 3/4" above normal YTD. The reservoir levels throughout the state remain well below normal. November 2, 2015 6:44 PM - File updated, October .43", just about normal. The year at 7.47" (corrected December 1 from 7.44") is still running about 1/4" above normal. October 1, 2015 12:21 PM - File updated, September 1.24", obviously well above the the normal of 0.05". I have the first nine months at 7.04" about 1/4" ABOVE normal for the year! I have the last five months at 5.39" an all time record for San Diego in the normally dry period, trouncing the previous record of 3.95" set in 1977 (September of that year had no measurable rain). September 1, 2015 10:07 PM - File updated, August 0.01", pretty usual for a typically dry August. Inland monsoonal rains I think were a bit below normal. August 3, 2015 3:31 PM - File updated, July 1.71", historical by all measures! July 19, 2015 7:07 PM - We've had extraordinary rains in the last couple days. July 2, 2015 12:10 PM - File updated, June .04". The 2014-2015 season came in at 9.01", about an inch below normal, but the highest amount in four years. May 31, 2015 8:50 PM - File updated, May 2.39", smashing the normal figure of 0.25". San Diego had the second wettest May on record, going back to 1852! The July 2014 - June 2015 seasonal total is now at 8.99", the wettest in four years and only an inch below normal May 5, 2015 12:38 PM - File updated, April .02", obviously well below the normal of .7". Since 1852 only three years have had drier first four months than this year's 1.65". 2002 saw 1.58", 1984 saw 1.21" and 1972 an ultra dry 0.19". The average is 6.09". March 31, 2015 8:07 PM - File updated, March .93". All of it fell in the first two days of the month, then nothing. So with the first three months well below normal, unfortunately the drought is going into the fourth year, consequences could be considerable. March also came in as the warmest March in San Diego history, beating last year's record by more than 2 degrees. Evidence from many sources indicate we are in a world wide warming trend. March 2, 2015 7:30 PM - Yesterday came in at .68", shortchanged! Today has brought in .23" so far. Again inland and northern areas in San Diego county received more: there, the vegetation must be quite happy with all this rain! |
Big cumulus over San Diego - Sunday February 8, 2009
