Given the consternation the rains caused this year you would have thought we saw a record, but apparently not even close.
An excerpt.
Rains fall far shy of record
The jet stream ushered in storms that dropped nearly 26 inches of the stuff, but the area's wettest water year, 1982-83, totaled 37.
By Gina Kim -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Wednesday, July 5, 2006
The Mayans had Chac, god of rain and lightning. The Greeks had Zeus, lord of the sky and thunder. And the ancient Egyptians had the Star of Isis, whose appearance marked the coming of the Nile floods.
In Sacramento, we had an obstinate jet stream that sat above us for months and dumped almost 26 inches of rain this past year, about 6 inches more than normal.
"The jet stream brought a lot of the storms through Northern California," Holly Snell, National Weather Service meteorologist, said Tuesday. "So the jet stream was over us for a lot of December and January, and the storms brought a lot of moisture."
But the 2005-2006 water year -- which started July 1 and ended June 30 -- was far from the wettest year on record, not even making the top 15 list, according to the weather service, which this week released the past year's results.
"The climate goes in cycles; there's no real pattern," Snell said. "We have some dry years and some wet years, but you're very rarely at normal."
This year was no exception.
The majority of rain came in December, when a sopping 9 inches fell during the month, more than three times the average amount.
And the holiday season was especially waterlogged; umbrellas were opened on 15 of the 17 days between Dec. 17 and Jan. 2, the weather service found.
