Yearly Rainfall Statistics Show S.D. Came Up Short

Despite a heavy storm that made last month the wettest June on record in San Diego, the National Weather Service has reported a below-normal annual rainfall total at Lindbergh Field for the second consecutive year.

A total of 7.84 inches of rain fell at Lindbergh Field as of June 30, the end of the rainfall season, according to forecaster Wally Segiel. Normal rainfall for the year is 9.32 inches, he said.

A single, two-day storm in early June dumped 0.87 of an inch of rain at Lindbergh Field, more than 14 times the June average of 0.06 inches. The previous record for the month was 0.68 of an inch in 1850.

Higher than normal rainfall totals were also recorded in September, October, January and May, while the other seven months were below normal, Segiel said.

November and March were the most unusually dry months, with rainfall totals--0.09 and 0.25 of an inch, respectively--more than an inch below average.

San Diego usually receives more than two-thirds of its rainfall in the rainy season from November through March, Segiel said.

For July, the weather service forecasts that San Diego’s rainfall will be “near normal, or basically nothing,” he said. The area’s July average is only 0.01 of an inch, he said.

The 90-day forecast, however, calls for above-normal rainfall, Segiel said. The average for that three-month period is 0.31 inches.

Rainfall was above normal in San Diego in the four years preceding the last two years of below-normal totals, Segiel said.

Most other parts of California, however, have been suffering from below-average rainfall for four consecutive years, according to Ira Bartfeld, a hydrologist at the weather service’s California and Nevada River Forecast Center.

“San Diego County does appear to be in a better situation than other parts of the state,” Bartfeld said.

The worst situation is in the central coastal area, where reservoirs are holding only 17% of their normal supply, Bartfeld said.

San Diego reservoirs, however, are holding about 77% of the amount of water they contained four years ago, according to Gordon Hess, a senior civil engineer with the San Diego County Water Authority.

Because of the area’s dependence on imported water, supplies in San Diego are not as affected by local weather patterns as are supplies in other parts of the state, he said.