California Drought: Biggest American Weather story of the winter (snow, recorded, temperatures)

[nei]

Originally Posted by AdriannaSmiling

Any rain that we get from mid May through mid September is bound to be spotty due to coming out of cut-off low pressure systems (rather than a regular weather front which are impossible in our climate in summer).

what was the june 2011 rainstorm that hit the Bay Area?

[Glacierx]

2013 was the driest year ever in California and the 4th driest in Oregon.

Well, California annual weather is much better, more superior, and more healthy than Seattle Pacific Northwest annual weather.


However, the drought in California in 2013 is incredible, and not supposed to happen, especially when San Francisco gets only 5 inches of rain an entire year, that’s extreme desert levels, and less than Phoenix Arizona’s average annual precipitation.

Then again, the actual winter season of 2012-2013 had above average precipitation in November, December right before 2013 started, and September probably had above average precipitation, so maybe it’s not quite as bad as it seems. And Middle of January weather right now getting up to low to mid 70s and very sunny right in San Francisco, and warmer than July in a mid latitude climate is phenomenal.


Winter season precipitation in coastal California is sometimes very unpredictable, so maybe February, March gets beneficial moderate, heavy rain, and more varied weather, and ending a drought. A few winters ago, 2010-2011?, there was like 10 inches of rain in December in coastal California up to Los Angeles, and almost zero rain in November, and January, and another year with a noticeable situation of 5 to 17 inches of rain in February compared to almost zero December/January.


I take California annual weather any day compared to Seattle weather these days.



I really can’t deal with mind numbing, and soul crushing version of cloudiness in Seattle since the middle of August with only one decent break Late November-Early December the entire 5 months. Almost every year, Seattle right in Puget Sound area really gets 9 to 10 months of excessive cloudiness, anemic summers, anemic winters, sometimes not even enough heavy rain to make it more easy to deal with extreme cloudiness, and dominating oceanic pattern with too few exceptions such as the holy number 1 weather year of 2009.

I noticed 2004 was an absolute horror story with up to 11 months and a half of cloudiness in seattle, including in seattle’s overrated summer such as heavy rain and more than 30 cloudy days in a row from August to September 2004, and zero or only 1 completely sunny day in 5 months from August to December 2004... Weather History for Seattle Boeing, WA | Weather Underground



I plan to move out in 2 years, and move in San Francisco-Berkeley-Napa California for plenty of reasons. I prefer 4 seasons coastal Northeast weather, and at the same time I actually have almost equal preference to Mediterranean California weather, and a change of scenery because I lived in NYC coastal Northeast a long time of my life.

[FVWinters]

The Climate Prediction Center just put out its latest medium term (one year) temperature and precipitation forecasts. California, the desert Southwest, Great Basin, Oregon and southern Washington are expected to remain dry until the end of May.
For those of us living in the Pacific States, this bodes particularly ill since much of our water falls during the winter months. If this forecast ends up being accurate, by the time our precipitation pattern normalizes, it will be too late until October...
British Columbia won't get off scott-free, either. The same anomalous ridge drying us out will desiccate the southern part of the province as well. "Normal" Precipitation isn't likely until you reach about the northern tip of Vancouver Island.
Personally, I think the CPC is overselling the future of this dry spell and, at least for those of us living north of about 40 to 42 N. Latitude, things will get wet long before May. B.C. will probably not have to worry about a drought at all.
But I won't bet my mortgage, either.

[Glacierx]

I wouldn't either. Seasonal forecast aren't any better than chance.

[Joe90]

Are places in the PNW and BC getting sunnier than usual winter weather as a result of the drier weather?

[deneb78]

Originally Posted by Joe90

Are places in the PNW and BC getting sunnier than usual winter weather as a result of the drier weather?

Yes much sunnier than normal winter for sure around here... This is the forecast for the next 2 weeks.




Here is how it has been so far this month:

[nei]

If there's any way to get monthly sunshine data for the west coast, I'd be curious to see it. Might have better luck getting data for Vancouver? If data exists for San Francisco, it'd probably be in the 80+% range, maybe near 90%.

[deneb78]

Originally Posted by nei

If there's any way to get monthly sunshine data for the west coast, I'd be curious to see it. Might have better luck getting data for Vancouver? If data exists for San Francisco, it'd probably be in the 80+% range, maybe near 90%.

I know EC keeps sunshine data for several locations including Vancouver but they don't seem to publish it online. If I had to make an educated guess... I'd say we've had about 40% of possible sun which doesn't seem like a lot but it's almost double what it should be for this time of year.

[AdriannaSmiling]

Originally Posted by nei

If there's any way to get monthly sunshine data for the west coast, I'd be curious to see it. Might have better luck getting data for Vancouver? If data exists for San Francisco, it'd probably be in the 80+% range, maybe near 90%.

Here in San Jose it's been about 85 percent- we've had a couple of overcast days and a couple of partly cloudy days but no rain. SF isn't really that different from San Jose in sunshine in WINTER so I'd say about the same.