June 30th marked the end of the 06′-07′ Rain Season here in California. And it is one for the record books. With only 29 hundredths of an inch recorded here at DesertWeather it has been extremely dry! The official reading for Palm Springs is 54 hundreds of an inch, that’s 4.69 inches below normal. OK, 4 and a half inches, that’s not much you say, but when you realize that Palm Springs annual rainfall averages around 5.23 inches, .54 of an inch equates to only 11% of the normal rainfall!
Stats for the local area from the NWS:
...PRELIMINARY 2006-07 SEASON RAINFALL TOTALS... ...* DENOTES THE CURRENT SEASON... LOCATION 2006-07 RAINFALL AVERAGE RAINFALL PALM SPRINGS 0.54 INCHES 5.23 INCHES THERMAL 0.17 INCHES 3.53 INCHES ...PRELIMINARY SEASONAL RAINFALL RANKINGS FOR PALM SPRINGS... RANK RAINFALL SEASON 1. 0.33 INCHES 2001-02 2. 0.54 INCHES 2006-07* 3. 0.81 INCHES 1998-99 ...PRELIMINARY SEASONAL RAINFALL RANKINGS FOR THERMAL... RANK RAINFALL SEASON 1. 0.17 INCHES 2006-07* 2. 0.42 INCHES 2001-02 3. 0.53 INCHES 1958-59
Los Angeles area Information
Downtown Los Angeles recorded its driest year on record since records began 130 years ago in 1877! Only 3.21 inches of rain fell, that’s 11.93 inches below the normal amount. Or 21% of normal.
The rainfall total for the season…3.21 inches…was lower than the average yearly rainfall for phoenix (8.29″)… Palm Springs (5.23″) and Las Vegas (4.49″)… and was less than one inch more than what is normal for Death Valley (2.33″).
The top ten driest seasons in downtown Los Angeles are listed below. Remember that rain seasons are from July 1 thru June 30th of the following year.
RANK RAIN SEASONAL % OF SEASON RAINFALL NORMAL
---------- -------------- --------
1.........(2006-2007)..........3.21"................21%
2.........(2001-2002)..........4.42"................29%
3.........(1960-1961)..........4.85"................32%
4.........(1958-1959)..........5.58"................37%
5.........(1898-1899)..........5.59"................37%
6.........(1923-1924)..........6.67"................44%
7.........(1893-1894)..........6.73"................44%
8.........(1897-1898)..........7.06"................47%
9.........(1971-1972)..........7.17"................47%
10.(TIE)..(1975-1976)..........7.22"................48%
10.(TIE)..(1947-1948)..........7.22"................48%
Several other locations around southwestern California also recorded their driest season ever.
SEASONAL NORMAL % OF 2006-07
RAINFALL SEASONAL NORMAL SEASON
7/1/06-6/30/07 RAINFALL RANK
-------------- -------- ------ ----
DOWNTOWN L.A. 3.21" 15.14" 21% 1
LOS ANGELES ARPT 2.63" 13.15" 20% 1
LONG BEACH ARPT 2.10" 12.94" 16% 1
UCLA 3.06" 18.68" 16% 1
BURBANK 2.83" 17.49" 16% 1
PALMDALE 0.65" 7.36" 9% 1
LANCASTER 1.40" 7.40" 19% 1
SANDBERG 5.03" 12.60" 40% 3
CAMARILLO 3.43" 15.62" 22% 1
SANTA BARBARA ARPT 7.15" 16.93" 42% 3
SANTA MARIA 5.11" 14.01" 36% 2
PASO ROBLES ARPT 3.93" 13.08" 30% 1
sources: National Weather Service (San Diego), National Weather Service (Los Angeles)
