Downtown LA On Pace For Driest Year On Record
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — This season could be one for the history books as downtown Los Angeles is on pace for its driest year on record.
KNX 1070's Pete Demetriou reports data from the National Weather Service (NWS) released Monday shows through December, rainfall in the downtown area has totaled 2.49 inches to date - a mere 26 percent of the 13.51 inches of normal volume forecast to date.
Downtown LA On Pace For Driest Year On Record
The driest season ever recorded in downtown L.A. was 3.21 inches during the 2006-2007 season. The normal yearly total for the area is 14.93 inches.
If the city doesn't see more than .58 inches of rain through Dec. 31, 2013 will officially be the driest calendar year since records began in 1877, according to the NWS.
Bill Patzer, a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories, said it's not just the calendar year rain totals that have dropped off.
"We also do the rain year, which is July through June, and actually that's been pretty dry too," Patzer said. "Since July 1st, we haven't had an inch of rain."
Other Southland areas poised for record dry seasons include Los Angeles International and Long Beach airports, UCLA, and parts of the San Fernando Valley, including Burbank and Woodland Hills.
The forecast from CBS2 Chief Meteorologist Josh Rubenstein calls for some showers starting Thursday, but rainfall isn't expected to top more than a tenth of an inch of rain.
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