Water continues to flow in most of our washes and dry creeks, day after day, long after the rain has gone.
But look at these early February California totals (table at right in graphic) from the California Nevada River Forecast Center (with lots of rivers above flood stage right now)!
This winter will go down in history as one that was so majestically unanticipated and points to the difficulty of seasonal forecasts.
Still looking for major storms in AZ toward the end of next week, as suggested in those spaghetti plots of old.
The End
Art: This seems to be the winter you were expecting previously when there was an El Nino- precipitation in California is really high. Up here, though it really hasn’t been all that wet. I only measured 4.87 inches for January, and though we had a lot yesterday, it’s not going to rain much in the next few days.
I think all the forecasters were expecting a strong chance of a winter like this one last year due to that giant El Niño that was publicized so much.
An ENSO expert friend pointed out that no Niño doesn’t mean it will be dry in California and the Southwest, that there’s not much correlation in precip when more or less “Nada” conditions exist in SSTs. I guess we’ve seen that this year!
And a lower than normal rain up there goes with the Niño scenario, doesn’t it?
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Thanks for sharing the intresting finding by your expert friend. I’m certainly no expert on correlations in precipitation with El Ninos or other SST conditions. Anyway, our rainfall amounts are about to go up big time for the next few days anyway.
Hi, again, Roland,
My friend felt the media were making too much of a possible dry winter for Cal this water year back last fall when it seemed La Niña conditions were developing.
Yes, the fire hose will certainly hit your area before shifting south again. Good luck!
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