Storm brings SP year-to-date rain
close to totals of previous years
January 16, 2015
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
The close of the weekend inched Santa Paula closer to the entire rainfall experienced each rain year for the last two years, thanks to light but steady precipitation over the weekend.
The mild storm helped Santa Paula and other Southern California areas ease the record three-year drought, but much more of the wet stuff is definitely needed.
The Ventura County Watershed Protection District (VCWPD) reported 1.37 inches fell on Santa Paula during the storm on Saturday and Sunday; others with private rain gauges reported as much as 1.75 inches depending on location.
The VCWPD showed that the storm put Santa Paula at 5.57inches for the rain year, more than an inch behind the pre-drought average of 6.88 inches to date.
Better news is that rainfall is 81 percent of normal to date, and well above the 2014 year to date of 0.83 inches.
To compare the rainfall, in 2012-2013 the VCWPD recorded only 5.96 inches of rain... for the entire rain year, which starts October 1 and goes through September 30. The rainfall was 33 percent of the normal pre-drought average rainfall for Santa Paula of 18.05 inches.
The next year was slighter wetter: 2013-2014 saw 6.15 inches of rain for the year, 34.1 percent of annual average.
Santa Paula is now at the 30.9 percent of the total historical annual rainfall of 18.05 inches, according to the VCWPD.
It wouldn’t be a storm without varying reports of rain: SPWeather.net reports the weekend storm brought 1.57 inches and bumped the rain year up to 6.06 inches.
That the weekend storm was gentle but persistent was welcomed by residents of Camarillo Springs where two deluges weakened the Springs’ burn area above a residential area.
Damage in December was followed by ten homes destroyed by a second storm in January that created a mud, rock and debris flow.
No rain is forecast through Tuesday but there will be balmy days and cold nights with highs in the mid-70s and lows dipping into the high-40s and low-50s.
