A Very Moist California

Currently, there is no drought in California.  Zero.

The water outlook is very positive for the upcoming year across the Golden State, which this year will be the Green State.

California has massive reservoirs with multi-year storage capacity, unlike Washington State, which has not invested in sufficient storage capacity.  

Currently, ALL the California reservoirs are at above-normal levels, some at much above normal levels.

Soil moisture is well above normal (green colors)

California rivers?   Flowing at far above normal levels.  Some at record levels.

As you can imagine, this moist bounty is associated with higher than normal precipitation this fall, as illustrated by the percent of average precipitation for the water year so far (starting on October 1).

Some locations have received over 400% of normal precipitation.  Wow.

Snowpack has been building up rapidly during the past months and is now about 100% of normal for the central and southern Sierra Nevada.   But less than normal (around 50%) in the northern part of the state.

No problem...the reservoirs have stored the water that fell as rain versus snow in the northern sections, and more snow is on the way.

Looking forward, the situation only gets better.

Lots of rain is forecast through the middle of the month (see below)

And bountiful snow is predicted for central and northern California during this period...just what is needed to get snow water to average levels.

You would think the media and climate pundits would be happy with this water bounty.

But no, many outlets can not give up on the climate change impacts angle and are now pushing the "weather whiplash"  and "hygrometeorological whiplash" angles (see sample below). 

Some folks are never happy.

Announcement

I will hold a special online Zoom session at 10 AM on Saturday for Patreon supporters.  Will answer questions and talk in detail about the outlook for the remainder of the winter, and perhaps some controversial topics. 

Was 2025 An Usual Weather Year in the Pacific Northwest?

With January 1 behind us now, it is time to examine the weather of 2025.   

Was it unusual?  Did it represent some kind of climatological extreme?

Let's check out the numbers and decide.

Starting with average temperatures,  the map below shows the difference from normal of the annual temperatures (F) over the past year.  

In general, this was a warmer-than-normal year (yellow and orange colors), with the majority of the region being within 2°F of normal (yellow and green).  About 30% of the region was 2-4F above normal.

For precipitation, the percent of normal for the entire year is shown below.  About 30% of the region was above normal, some much above normal (dark green). About 40% of the area was dry, 40-90% of normal

So, for temperature and precipitation, it was a real mixed bag, with a tendency towards modestly warmer and drier than normal conditions.

But how unusual was this year?   To gain some insights, let's check out some stations.

First, considering the annual average temperature at Olympic Airport, this year was certainly not a record, but it was relatively warm compared to the past 75 years.  A slow warming trend is noted.

Moving to eastern Washington (Ephrata), a very similar story.

So the temperature story is not exceptional:  a modestly warm, non-record year.

Next, consider precipititation; we have an issue with missing data in 2024 (29 days missing) and 2025 (6 days missing).  I worry that might have affected the earlier figures as well.  

Even with missing data, Olympia was only a little below normal in 2024 and 2025.  Very little long-term trend in precipitation

And Ephrata precipitation was near normal the last few years, with very little trend.

In short, although a bit on the dry/warm side, 2025 was really not exceptional.   Not a year of overall temperature and precipitation extremes.  Kind of a yawn. 

Yes, we had some wetter and drier periods during the year (which is not unusual), but in the end we came out a little below normal, as illustrated by the cumulative precipitation at Olympia.

Some northern WA stations, like Bellingham, came in above normal (see below)

It is good I don't have a YouTube channel; this relatively boring finding would not get me many clicks.😊