Did you feel that? Unusually dry February ends with light sprinkle in Sacramento

Given an additional day from the leap year, the blanketing clouds managed to open up on Saturday night and give the dry Sacramento earth a few welcome drops of rain, scant though they were.

February 2020 was on track to be the first February on record where it didn’t rain on any day in Sacramento, owing largely to high pressure systems that blocked off potential storms and kept it dry throughout the region, according to the National Weather Service.

The month was peppered by unusual bouts of heat as well, with several temperature records matched or broken, making it feel more like spring than winter.

But the Saturday night sprinkles were sparse and diffuse. The NWS reported trace amounts of precipitation at the Sacramento Executive Airport, and while its downtown station reported no rain at all, the equipment there is not capable of detecting trace rain.

Technically speaking, it wasn’t the first completely dry February in Sacramento, NWS forecaster Cory Mueller said, but it was still the driest February on record.

“Overall, it’s not usual, but we have seen dry Februaries, and we’ve seen quite a few dry Februaries,” Mueller said.

Long stretches of dry weather during Northern California winters are relatively normal, Mueller said, but added that “this one is a little longer.”

The last driest February at Sacramento Executive Airport was in 1964, when .15 inches of rain was recorded the whole month. Downtown Sacramento was driest in February 1899, with just .04 inches of rain. NWS records go back to 1878.

In the Bay Area, San Francisco reported a totally rain-free February, the first since 1864.

The last measurable precipitation for Sacramento came on Jan. 26, when 0.24 inches of rainfall was observed. The next best chance for rain comes March 7, with a 40 percent chance of showers throughout the day.

Rainfall in Sacramento generally exceeds 3 inches during an average February. The downtown area usually sees 3.21 inches on average, while the airport gets 3.06 inches.

As of Sunday morning, Sacramento was seeing light rainfall, while the Sierra Nevada was seeing moderate snow.

The NWS issued a winter weather advisory, predicting 2 to 5 inches of snow at high elevations, plus a wind advisory that called for high-speed winds in the Sacramento Valley.

Gusts in Chico could reach 45 miles per hour, while Sacramento can expect speeds of 25 to 30 miles per hour.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.