Wet California

 This has been a very wet fall in California.    A big contrast with last year.

Los Angeles this week

Consider the differences from normal of the precipitation during the last month for the western U.S. (below).   

Wow.  Some parts of southern California have gotten 800% of normal precipitation!  The entire state is considerably wetter than normal.

Many of the rivers are running MUCH higher than normal, as shown by the latest percentages below.   Crazy high river levels over coastal southern California.

What about the levels of the all-important California reservoirs?  The answer is below.

All are at or above normal.  Over southern California, some are full.

Last year, had one of the driest Octobers through December on record in Southern California, which contributed to the LA wildfire in early January.   

Some claimed this was the result of "climate change."

The atmosphere did not get the message.   Consider the precipitation from October 1 through November 19 over the past 50 years.  This year was the second wettest of the entire record!

This wet fall has led to the suppression of wildfires.    

So far this has been a VERY low wildfire year in California....something that is being given little attention in the media. 

Below are the statistics for wildfire acres year to date.    So far in 2025, about 525,208 acres have burned compared to a fire-year average of 1,315,947.

That is only about 40% of the recent average.

So, why has California been so wet?    The answer:  a persistent trough of low pressure off its coast.

For example, here is the anomaly map (difference from normal) for the heights at 500 hPa pressure (think of pressure around 18,000 ft). 

Purple and blue indicate lower than normal values....troughs of low pressure.    Right off of California!