Every year we hear the weathermen predicting this much rainfall and forecasting weather, but a majority of the time they are completely off in their predictions. Last year was supposed to be the saving year, the year of El Niño, but it ended up being a bust. However, this year it seems like it is raining multiple times a week. In this blog, we will look back on last year’s bust weather and also discuss our recent weather and its implications going for the drought going forward.
Last Year’s Weather
El Niño was a bust. The rare weather pattern was supposed to bring us more rain and possibly lift the pressure off this drought, but that failed to happen. El Niño did help Northern California rebuilding the snowpack, but California only received about 60% of its average rainfall last year. In fact, about 21% of California was categorized as in exception drought at the beginning of this year’s water year at the end of September. However, one benefit of this low rainfall is the result it has had on this year’s weather. The small El Niño has led to a larger La Niña this fall, which is basically El Niño’s opposite.
Rain Patterns
December was the wettest month recorded in downtown Los Angeles since December 2010. The percent of exceptional drought area in California has dropped 3% over the past 3 months and 18% of California is actually no longer considered abnormally dry while this number was 0% 3 months ago. Rain is always expected during this time of the year, but this year we seem to be receiving more than before. This rain is happily welcomed by most as it is only lessening the pressure of the drought. Once again, the drought is nowhere near over but a heavy rain year is always helpful.
Mountain Snow
The end of 2016 saw a huge increase in snowfall that is continuing into 2017. Granted, this snow is expected with the higher rainfall but 2016 saw a 52% increase in snowfall from 2015. Mammoth mountain saw 109 inches of snow in 2013 while 2016 brought 354 inches. This increase in snow is obviously awesome for ski resorts and those of us that love to ski, but this is also great news to the drought. Northern California snow melts and runs off into local giving us more water. Of course, once again this trend needs to continue to make a significant impact on the drought but we always love to see rain and snow.
Everyone thought last year, El Niño, was going to be the year California received a ton of rain and saved us from the drought, but that clearly was not the case. This year has brought us the most rain we have seen in years and all we can do is hope it keeps coming. This weather sure is whacky, as we wrote about in our previous blog, but we do love to see snow and rain. With that being said, this drought will continue for some time to come and we must always make sure we are conserving water and being water efficient.