No rain? January may tie the record for Fresno. Meteorologist explains what a trace is
Does it feel as though it’s been a while since it rained? Well, that’s because it hasn’t since a wild December that included monsoon-like downpours and even the tantalizing chance of snow on the streets of Fresno.
That’s so yesterday. Now, the National Weather Service says it’s possible that the city won’t see a drop of rain past the first week of February.
We’re looking at 1948, right now. That’s when the city received just a trace of rain, with the next-driest January in 1976, when only .04 of an inch fell.
How little is a trace? According to Colin McKellar at the weather service in Hanford, it’s when you can look into a rain gauge and see the bottom is damp, but there’s not enough moisture to pour out.
That’s what Fresno is looking at, recorded on Jan. 7.
And, “no model shows any precipitation for the next seven to 10 days,” said McKeller.
Fresno still has 5.21 inches of rainfall toward the seasonal normal of 10.99, but McKeller said the models right now don’t show the region catching up in February or March.
It doesn’t get any better in the Sierra Nevada, where the snowpack the central San Joaquin Valley depends on in the summer months is rapidly eroding.
McKeller said during the bountiful December, the snowpack was at 170%. But it’s already down to 100%.
Blame it on La Niña, a Pacific weather pattern which drives moisture north of California. When that occurs, “we get nothing,” said McKellar.
So all that wet weather in December was no drought-buster, after all.
