Parts of California Are Missing More Than 2 Years of Rain

Chris Dolce
Published: April 15,2015


 
The multi-year drought in California has been illustrated in many ways, and this map from the National Weather Service in Phoenix is just the latest to show the extreme situation that is in place.
(MORE: Snow Survey Reveals Record Early-April Low)
As depicted by the darkest red shading, portions of southern California and the southern Sierra Nevada have missed out on more than two year's worth of precipitation (rain/melted snow combined) since October 2011. A much larger area of southern, central and northern California has precipitation deficits of one to two years during this period.
The map was compiled using data from the Oregon State University PRISM Climate Group.

This map shows precipitation deficits in years across California and adjacent parts of Nevada since October 2011.
(National Weather Service - Phoenix, Arizona)

Here are a few city-specific rainfall deficits from October 2011 through March 2015, which is approximately the same period of time for the data on the map.
Los Angeles: 28.07 inches of rain has fallen compared to the average of 58.17 inches. This is a deficit of 30.10 inches, which is roughly double the annual average rainfall of 14.93 inches, during this period of time,
San Francisco (downtown): 61.47 inches of rain has fallen compared to the average of 92.01 inches. The deficit of 30.54 inches is nearly 7 inches more than their yearly average rainfall of 23.65 inches.
Reno, Nevada: The precipitation deficit over this period is 10.22 inches, which is more than the annual average precipitation of 7.40 inches.

MORE: Drought Photos That Prove California is in Deep Trouble