SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Downpours moved across Northern California most of Friday. Intense rain broke daily records for some cities, including Sacramento.
Two inches of rain was recorded Friday in Downtown Sacramento, setting a new daily rainfall record. The previous record for November 22 was just over an inch.
Friday's rainfall was not the rainiest day on record, that was October 24, 2021, when Downtown picked up 5.44" of rain! In fact, the rain yesterday did not even crack the top 10 rainiest days on record. Nonetheless, two inches of rain is very welcome and puts us above average on the water year so far!
As expected, the heaviest rain was along the North Coast and Coastal Range. The very strong atmospheric river was pointed directly at Cape Mendocino from Tuesday through Thursday and the rainfall totals in the mountains reflect that. Many places in the Coastal Range recorded anywhere from one to two feet of rain from this storm.
Santa Rosa recorded over 12" of rain and the city had widespread urban flooding, as a result.
Our reservoirs got a healthy drink during this storm too. The weather station at Shasta Dam recorded exactly a foot of rain between midnight Tuesday and 4 a.m. Saturday. Oroville Dam picked up almost ten and a half inches during this same time frame!
Downtown Sacramento — as of 4 a.m. Saturday — nabbed 2.77" of rain from this storm, and showers on Saturday are likely to add a little more to this total. It's notable, however, that Sacramento picked up 2 whole inches of that total on Friday alone!
Rain was much harder to come by in the San Joaquin Valley, as the region was sat too far south of the atmospheric river. Stockton barely had a tenth of an inch going into Friday, and Modesto didn't pick up any rain at all until Friday. Stockton has recorded more than an inch of rain as of Saturday morning, while Modesto is just over half an inch.
It's still quite early in the water year (Oct 1-Sept 30) but storms like this one always do a lot to buoy our totals. Most of Northern California is now at or well above average through this point in the water year. Sacramento and San Francisco are now about 1.5" above normal, while Redding is more than four and a half inches above normal and Eureka is almost six inches to the good.
Stockton and Modesto are below average at this point, but not by much. They are still less than an inch below average, easily recoverable as we aren't even into the wettest part of the year.
