San Francisco's Long Dry Spell About To End
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- It's been 159 days since San Francisco has what can be called a rain shower, but that is about to change thanks to a low pressure system spinning 400 miles off the coast.
The last significant rainfall the city has received was 0.13 of an inch on April 16th. It been an even longer dry spell in San Jose where it hasn't rained since April 16.
The National Weather Service predicted showers would begin to fall on Monday night and then spread to the remainder of the Bay Area by Tuesday morning. Most areas can expect between 0.25 to 0.75 of an inch with isolated amounts of more than an inch in the upper elevations.
"Lingering showers are likely to persist into Tuesday night and Wednesday morning as the mid/upper level system shifts inland over southern California," the weather service said in a release.
While temperatures will likely be seasonably mild Monday, especially over the Central Coast, cooler daytime temperatures can be expected through midweek, forecasters predicted.
On Monday, the Department of Water Resources issued a roundup for the water year 2018 that ended on Sept. 30th.
"The recent record-breaking drought was followed by the second-wettest year on record in 2017, followed by another dry year," said DWR Director Karla Nemeth in a press release. "Climate change models predict extreme variability in precipitation to be the new norm, which requires us to be ever more vigilant in our flood and drought preparedness."
For the 2018 water year, much of Southern California ended up with half or less than half of average annual precipitation. The April 1 statewide snowpack based on over 260 snow courses was just 58 percent of average for water year 2018, a dramatic drop from 159 percent of average for the same date in 2017.
And there were new records this summer for maximum temperatures in many regions of the state.
