Sunny California has never seen anything like 2013.
According to statistics from the National Weather Service, nothing short of a Noah-like deluge this month will keep the Golden State from having its driest year on record – and those go back 132 years.
But in San Francisco they go back 164 years, which is where the magnitude of a third year of drought becomes eye-opening. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, total rainfall in the city for the first 10 months of 2013 is just 3.95 inches. The normal 12-month total is 20.78 inches.
Deeper inside the state, the situation for agriculture is becoming dire. In Fresno, where average rainfall is 11.50 inches per year, the total so far in 2013 is less than three inches.
The state's early outlook for 2014 is also grim. On November 20 the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced an initial allocation of just 5 percent of requested water deliveries to State Water Project contractors. That's tied with 2010 for the lowest amount ever.
Three-fourths of California's total rainfall occurs between November and March, so it is not unusual for actual water deliveries to be much larger than initial allocations. But with so much catching up to do it is likely that California will be a very dry place in 2014.
