SACRAMENTO >> With one more soaking-wet storm front dumping its stuff special-delivery over Wednesday night, California woke up on Thursday to a new all-time record for rainfall, as measured in the all-important “Northern Sierra eight-station index,” a catchment area that pretty much defines the Golden State’s water-level health.
“We didn’t just beat the record,” said meteorologist Craig Shoemaker with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. “We shattered it.”
Weighing in at 89.7, the new record beat the old one of 88.5 set in 1982-83 by a long and very wet shot. At a whopping 207-percent of average for this time of year, the latest tally of the Northern Sierra eight-station index showed in a nice blue line at the top of the rainfall-history chart maintained by the state’s Department of Water Resources at this site.
Shoemaker said “we had a pretty heavy rainfall over the Sierra last night with one to three inches. And it was widespread, which is key when you hit all eight of those stations.”
He said much of that hard rain was recorded above an elevation of 3,000 feet and the most impacted area stretched from Mt. Shasta in the north all the way down south of Highway 50 into El Dorado County.
The Accuweather monitor in Lakeport recorded 15.89 inches of rainfall above the historical normal for the span of Oct. 1 through Thursday. That’s a total of 45.58 for the season. Some reports have higher elevations in the county at double the usual precipitation.
“And we’re expecting more rain in the coming days,” said Shoemaker, “with a storm on Easter Sunday and another one in the middle of next week.”
Accuweather forecasters anticipate rain in varying amounts starting on Sunday and running through Wednesday in Lake County. As of Thursday the Lakeport monitor had measured 1.68 inches for April, just shy of the 1.7 average.
Clear Lake remained above the historical full mark at 7.73 yesterday afternoon, meaning it has exceeded the Rumsey Gauge mark of 7.56 since around January 20. For much of February the lake was over the 9.0 flood stage.
Dave Faries of the Lake County Record-Bee contributed to this story
