Jan 4,2025: Northern California looks to join Southern California with a persistent dry pattern through mid January, typically the launch of the California rainy season.
The upper part of California has seen an above normal rainfall pattern for the start of the water year but now the next two weeks look dry and increasingly warm.
Above is the 10-day chart for Redding California, just a few miles from the state’s largest reservoir.
Meanwhile Southern California faces high winds and a tinder dry landscape with the forecast this week suggesting ” extremely critical” conditions that may unfold this week.
The first Dept of Water Resources snowpack reading in California this season was released in the past few days suggesting “extreme shifts” in the weather so far.
“While our snowpack looks good now, we have a long way until April when our water supply picture will be more complete,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “Extreme shifts between dry and wet conditions are continuing this winter and if the past several years are any indication, anything could happen between now and April and we need to be prepared.”
DWR’s electronic readings from 130 stations placed throughout the Sierra Nevada indicate that the statewide snowpack’s snow water equivalent is 10.7 inches, or 108 percent of average for this date, compared to 28 percent on this date last year.
California has seen this pattern before. In both 2013 and 2022, the January snowpack was well above average thanks to December storm activity, only for dry conditions to take over the rest of the winter, quickly erasing early season snow totals and continuing existing drought conditions across the state.”
This water year the Redding area is 120 percent of normal for January 4 while Riverside, in SoCal, is 1 percent
Major reservoirs statewide are currently 121 percent of average thanks to two consecutive years of above average snowpack conditions, which occurred after the driest three-year period on record in California, says DWR.
The see-saw pattern can be seen with DWR’s electronic readings from 130 stations placed throughout the Sierra Nevada indicating that the statewide snowpack’s snow water equivalent is 10.7 inches, or 108 percent of average for this date, compared to just 28 percent on this date last year.
This water year the Redding area is 120 percent of normal for January 4 while Riverside, in SoCal, is 1 percent.
