Sacramento on pace for wettest year in a century
It hasn’t rained this much this fast in Sacramento during any year in more than a century, according to a Sacramento Bee review of the latest federal data.
About 23.5 inches of rain had fallen in Sacramento between Oct. 1 and Feb. 10, according to the National Climatic Data Center. That’s double the average for this point in the water year.
The water year in California runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30. The wettest year on record in Sacramento is 1982-1983, when it rained about 37 inches over the course of the water year. (About 20 inches of rain falls in a typical water year in Sacramento.)
At this point, Sacramento is well ahead of the pace from 1982-83.
This chart shows cumulative rainfall in 1982-83 and so far this water year. Days shown on the chart represent the number of days since Oct. 1.
It has been just three years since Sacramento had its driest water year on record. By this point in 2013-14, only 4.4 inches of rain had fallen in Sacramento, about 80 percent lower than rainfall totals so far in 2016-17, federal data show.
The federal government has tracked daily rainfall in downtown Sacramento for more than 100 years. This chart shows rainfall totals from Oct. 1 through Feb. 10 of each water year since 1915-16.
Data Tracker is a regular feature that breaks down the numbers behind today’s news. Explore more trends at sacbee.com/datatracker.
Phillip Reese: 916-321-1137, @PhillipHReese
This story was originally published February 17, 2017 at 4:00 AM with the headline "Sacramento on pace for wettest year in a century."