First, it was a few days, then a few weeks and now over a month without measurable rain or snow in Northern California.
On Wednesday, Feb. 9, UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab shared on its social media platforms that the site had broken a concerning record. There have now been 33 days straight without snow or rain at the CSSL site in Donner Pass.
A dry January with little rainfall across much of Northern California actually didn’t hurt the state’s water storage levels, according to data from the California Department of Water Resources.
In fact, thanks to a little snowmelt, water levels were up for all reservoirs from December to January. Lake Mendocino, which has a capacity of 122,400 acre feet, saw the biggest boost from 17% of storage capacity in December to 35% in January. One acre foot is the equivalent of one acre of land covered in one foot of water. Trinity Lake, with a capacity of 2,447,650 acre feet, had the smallest increase from 29% in December to 30% in January.
Three cities in Northern California may see a change in their energy bill if a proposal to buy power from a renewable energy company is approved.
“The prices have moved up here over the years,” said Grace Henderson.
Henderson has lived in Manteca for 25 years and says the place has only gotten pricier.
“Inflation is an issue right now, so all the prices are higher when you go to the gas station and the grocery store so that’s a major issue,” she said.
After two years of solid drought, and four months into California’s “wet” season, we don’t know if this year will be wet or dry. This is normal for California. But this year’s monthly precipitation “whiplash” is unusual.
For northern California, October was the 2nd wettest October in 102 years of record (400% of average October from one 2-day storm!). November was the 31st driest November (50% of average). December was the 23rd wettest December (160% of average), and January was the 7th driest January on record (16% of average).
There’s the kind of Dry January that follows an overly indulgent holiday season, where you swear off alcohol for the first 31 days of the new year.
Then there’s the kind we just had, where, except for a few errant spits of rain, the skies remained clear for an entire month with no significant rain in sight.
It won’t be the first time January has been dry, from a strictly meteorological perspective. And it’s not the worst thing that can happen, assuming there’s been sufficient rain in advance or in the months ahead.
Rainfall totals were nearly double the average in Northern California in December 2021. That’s what made the following month such a stark contrast.
January 2022 will go down as one of the region’s driest Januarys on record. Just a few weeks without rainfall was enough to dry out the ground, warm up the air and increase the risk for wildfires.
The Colorado Fire, which began on Jan. 21, demonstrated just how quickly conditions can go from promising to perilous. The fire burned through 687 acres of wildlands in Big Sur within the first two days. As of Jan. 31, the fire was 98% contained.
The National Weather Service in Sacramento tweeted Sunday that, despite California having a mostly dry January, snow depth and snow water content “is looking good and still running above average for this time of year.”
Currently, the Northern Sierra is at about 113 percent of what is considered the normal amount of snow for this time of year. Central Sierra snow is at about 109 percent. Overall, the state has about 111 percent of its average snowpack right now, thanks to the record-breaking storms that came toward the end of 2021.
The State Water Resources Control Board on Wednesday withdrew an emergency drought regulation for the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta.
Despite a dry January, board staff said the regulation, known as a temporary urgency change petition (TUCP), would not improve conditions if implemented as planned in February. They found no potential benefits to Shasta and Trinity reservoirs, which have the greatest need for water.
The heavy rains that soaked California late last year were welcomed by farmers, urban planners – and endangered coho salmon.
“We’ve seen fish in places that they haven’t been for almost 25 years,” said Preston Brown, director of watershed conservation for Salmon Protection And Watershed Network (SPAWN).
California received more precipitation from October to December than in the previous 12 months, according to the National Weather Service.
After one of its driest summers in years, satellite images show that Mount Shasta is blanketed in its signature snow once again after December storms swept across Northern California.
The images show the mountain nearly entirely devoid of snow in early September, after a very hot summer for the region compounded the lack of snowpack after two severely dry winters, dissipating the snowpack earlier than normal. Just four months later, the mountain appeared transformed, covered in snow once again.
