Does it EVER rain in summer in Sacramento? (August: live, stats)

[Trimac20]

Looking at the stats, the Central Valley seems to have the most rainless summers even by Californian standards. At least SoCal has the odd freak storm. In addition, 27 days of clear weather for July? Whoa? So does it EVER rain in July? If so how often?

[Phantom Hornet]

Originally Posted by Trimac20

Looking at the stats, the Central Valley seems to have the most rainless summers even by Californian standards. At least SoCal has the odd freak storm. In addition, 27 days of clear weather for July? Whoa? So does it EVER rain in July? If so how often?

In one word....NOPE

[wburg]

I have seen one or two freak summer thundershowers in the past 30 or so years here. It's about as common as winter snow: it's not unknown, but it's rare, and it doesn't last long. Generally in the summer it's not uncommon to go a month or two without seeing clouds, let alone rain.

The plus side of no summer rain is that it's not humid here in summer. I have seen some folks make the claim that Sacramento has humid summers: either they are from the Southwest, the only place with drier summers, or they don't understand what "humid" means.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by wburg

I have seen one or two freak summer thundershowers in the past 30 or so years here. It's about as common as winter snow: it's not unknown, but it's rare, and it doesn't last long. Generally in the summer it's not uncommon to go a month or two without seeing clouds, let alone rain.

The plus side of no summer rain is that it's not humid here in summer. I have seen some folks make the claim that Sacramento has humid summers: either they are from the Southwest, the only place with drier summers, or they don't understand what "humid" means.

I remember twice when we lived there rain in the summer, both times in July and it was so humid I thought we were in Texas or Fl. by the way, I was one that said I thought Sac had more humidity than many parts of Ca and I still think that, combined with the high summer heat. DOn't get me wrong, I certainly don't think it is anything like the East coast, parts of the mid west or the south, but compared to many places in Ca it is humid. Again, I am not knocking it, if I were to move back to Ca, Sac would be our first choice..

Nita

[jguillot]

It seems that there are always high pressure systems sitting off the coast of northern California in the spring and summer months. As a result, all of the rain goes into Oregon and Washington.

[Trimac20]

Originally Posted by wburg

I have seen one or two freak summer thundershowers in the past 30 or so years here. It's about as common as winter snow: it's not unknown, but it's rare, and it doesn't last long. Generally in the summer it's not uncommon to go a month or two without seeing clouds, let alone rain.

The plus side of no summer rain is that it's not humid here in summer. I have seen some folks make the claim that Sacramento has humid summers: either they are from the Southwest, the only place with drier summers, or they don't understand what "humid" means.

Haha, THAT rare?

There's a place here in Western Australia called Wyndham, which averages 0.0 mm of rain in August. In the period of record it has NEVER received any rain in August.

[tstieber]

Well, Sacramento probably averages a trace of maybe 0.01 inches, so it's close! I definitely think Sacramento is not at all humid. It does have a river going past downtown, but that doesn't add that much humidity. However, the agricultural irrigation in the Central Valley might blow some added humidity into town. I hear Phoenix gets pretty humid, in part because of golf course irrigation. But it's still pretty darn dry. I know during severe heat waves, Sacramento humidity can get into single digits.

[CityGirl72]

I've seen the freak storm, but yes, they are freakishly rare

[bluevelo]

Originally Posted by Phantom Hornet

In one word....NOPE

Last summer we had one rainy night. That's incredibly unusual.

Otherwise, it stops raining roughly in April and you *might* see rain again... in October.

[mr bolo]

If your near any rice fields during a hot summer evening, you will feel the humidity