Anyone else have a Drought?

ecial Weather Statement
Statement as of 9:32 PM PDT on April 30, 2008

... Just how dry was March and April 2008 in northern
California...

Below is a listing of the lowest precipitation amounts for
March and April in the same year. Note the period of record
for each station.

This year... downtown Sacramento... Redding and Modesto...
stations with over a century of data... had their lowest
precipitation amounts for the months March and April in
the same year.


Downtown sacramentoperiod of record 1877-2008

Mar-Apr amount..year
1. 0.13... ... ..2008
2. 0.29... ... ..1934
3. 0.32... ... ..1898
4. 0.50... ... ..1908
5. 0.60... ... ..2004
6. 0.76... ... ..1885
7. 0.76... ... ..1959
8. 0.81... ... ..1966
9. 0.86... ... ..1997
10. 0.87... ... ..1994


Stocktonperiod of record 1948-2008

Mar-Apr amount..year
1. 0.06... ... ..2008
2. 0.23... ... ..1997
3. 0.45... ... ..1966
4. 0.64... ... ..1972
5. 0.91... ... ..2004
6. 1.02... ... ..1984
7. 1.08... ... ..1964
8. 1.32... ... ..1962
9. 1.36... ... ..1994
10. 1.38... ... ..1990


Modesto period of record 1906-2008

Mar-Apr amount..year
1. 0.01... ... ..2008
2. 0.04... ... ..1934
3. 0.25... ... ..1997
4. 0.36... ... ..2004
5. 0.42... ... ..1959
6. 0.56... ... ..1972
7. 0.73... ... ..1966
8. 0.81... ... ..1984
9. 0.82... ... ..1913
10. 0.82... ... ..1932


Redding period of record 1986-2008*

Mar-Apr amount..year
1. 0.73... ... ..2008
2. 0.76... ... ..1898*
3. 2.61... ... ..2004
4. 2.72... ... ..2007
5. 3.05... ... ..1990
6. 3.63... ... ..1885*
7. 3.78... ... ..1994
8. 3.81... ... ..1988
9. 3.98... ... ..2002
10. 4.19... ... ..1997

*longer record which includes some city data.
These top ten may not include all the lowest
precipitation amounts due to limited access of
records prior to 1986.

The Province of New Brunswick would be happy to loan you some water right now - they are having terrible flooding.

I would take some just not the Floods.

Being another Californian, yeah. I can't believe that they are saying that we are having a drought because we had so much snow and rain and were above normal. I can't believe that because March was dry and April was "warm" (I didn't think it was). Now our water district is talking about rationing. At least I can shower at my health club.

To put this in perspective, we were in a drought in 2006. At the end of that summer, the "experts" said we were in a "drought pattern," and 2008 should be expected to be more of the same, with conditions approaching Dust Bowl levels.

Needless to say, we had one our the wettest years on record, and at least one month was far and away the record wettest.

Not even close here, we have had enough snow/rain for a lifetime. Just keep the flooding away this summer!

I hope those places get rain since they need it!

We wont get much more Rain. The Rainy Season is pretty much over. We were way ahead of Normal last Dec then they say Drought.

Oh for sure. We've been in drought for years. We're getting our usual rain, but it's not enough for all the farmers. Tristans dam completely dried out last year, firs time he says he's seen it happen.