Rain visited the San Diego region last night, dropping 1.1 inches in our area. That brings our total for the 2019-2020 rain year (measured July 1st to June 30th) to 7.5 inches – not bad. For comparison, here are the annual totals for the last 15 years:

2004-2005   37.44″

2005-2006   10.58″

2006-2007   6.10″

2007-2008   16.87″

2008-2009   10.74″

2009-2010   16.65″

2010-2011   24.39″

2011-2012   10.27″

2012-2013   8.35″

2013-2014   6.99″

2014-2015   9.27″

2015-2016   10.90″

2016-2017   22.39″

2017-2018   6.93″

2018-2019   22.95″

So 7.5 inches is pretty good for this time of year. It’s already more than several full years precipitation. (2011 to 2016 was a very rough stretch, precipitation-wise. We only averaged 8.5 inches per year across those years – a hard drought. The winter of 2016 broke that drought to some extent, but 2017-2018 was very low yet again.)

Our average annual rainfall is about 14 inches, which typically all drops in 2-3 months. Then we have another nine months in which there is no rain. By the end of that period, September and October, everything is VERY dry and is the height of fire season. So there’s a connection between our weirdly-compact rainy season and our propensity to burn.

That long dry season really does something to me emotionally, if not intellectually. During most of that period I long for a thunderstorm, and when I travel back east it’s great to experience a little rain. But for now San Diego is as wet as anywhere else in the US, and it feels great.