It wasn’t a downpour. Nevertheless it wasn’t only a mild sprinkle. And some areas within the mountains truly received an honest quantity.
The rain that fell Sunday throughout the Bay Space ranked as the best precipitation complete for any day in practically six months.
That’s common. Little or no rain falls most years in summer time in California. Nonetheless, the soggy Sunday was a reminder that autumn is right here and the state’s winter wet season has begun.
San Francisco acquired .19 inches Sunday — not quite a bit by winter storm requirements. However the final time extra fell in a single day was on Could 5, when the town acquired .54 inches.
Oakland equally noticed .19 inches, probably the most since Could 6, when .22 inches fell.
The storm got here ashore principally within the Sonoma space, so rain totals had been decrease farther south. San Jose acquired .07 inches Sunday, barely lower than the .08 that fell Sept. 30. The final time considerably extra fell within the Bay Space’s most populous metropolis was Could 5, when .15 inches arrived.
A couple of higher-elevations spots received very moist, with 2.34 inches falling on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, and 1 inch coming down within the Santa Cruz Mountains and East Bay Hills.
“That is the type of rain we wish to see,” mentioned Dalton Behringer, a meteorologist with the Nationwide Climate Service in Monterey. “There was no flooding. Nevertheless it was sufficient to moist the bottom, and moist the timber and the grass, lowering hearth danger.”
After a number of dry and cooler days, the subsequent probability for rain will probably be Thursday night time, Behringer mentioned. That’s prone to be lower than Sunday’s and extra centered on the North Bay. The outlook in any other case is dry for the remainder of the month, together with Halloween.
California’s extreme three-year drought ended final winter when greater than 30 atmospheric river storms stuffed reservoirs across the state and dumped probably the most snow within the Sierra Nevada of any winter in 40 years. Bay Space rainfall totals additionally had been sturdy.
Over the 2022-23 “water 12 months” that ended on Sept. 30, San Francisco acquired 33.87 inches — 148% of regular. That was the 14th wettest 12 months of the 174 years since 1849 when information started, and probably the most of any 12 months prior to now 25 years, since 1997-98, when 46.56 inches fell throughout a soaking El Niño winter that introduced widespread flooding throughout the state.
Robust El Niño situations are shaping up now within the Pacific Ocean, with warmer-than-average ocean temperatures alongside the equator off South America. Though El Niño situations improve the probabilities of a moist winter in Southern California, traditionally, they don’t seem to be a assure of a moist winter within the Bay Space or different elements of Northern California.
“It’s a tossup,” mentioned Behringer. “If you happen to look again on the El Niño years you’ll discover extreme droughts and really moist years right here. The sign is just not very robust.”
October to this point has been mediocre by way of rainfall totals. Though far Northern California is off to a moist begin, with Eureka at 138% of its historic common for October, even with Sunday’s rain, Santa Rosa was at 63% of regular for the month, and San Francisco and San Jose had been at 33%. Los Angeles hasn’t had any rain in October.
“We’re under regular,” Behringer mentioned. “Nevertheless it’s October and we’re simply beginning the winter season.”
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48-hour rainfall totals, ending at 1 pm Monday, in inches
Mount Tamalpais 2.34
Ben Lomond 1.06
Tilden Park 1.06
La Honda .70
Santa Rosa .58
Large Sur .31
Oakland .22
Mount Diablo .20
San Francisco .19
Fremont .12
San Jose .10
Mountain View .02
(Supply: Nationwide Climate Service)
