While
all of us recover from 55 straight hours of below freezing temperatures, other
parts of the world are dreaming of cooler temperatures!
Temperatures
in California and Arizona have been about 10-15 degrees above normal for almost
the last two weeks. Now, while many of us might find it hard to feel bad for
those areas “struggling” with highs in the 70s, it’s the weather pattern that
is associated with it that is causing so many problems.
That
pattern is causing incredibly dry conditions. Parts of California and Oregon
had their driest year on record last year. Eugene, California missed their average
rainfall total by over a foot (-24.91” below normal), and Big Sur, California
was over three feet below average (-37.62” to be exact)! But even those numbers
would have been appreciated in Occidental, California where they had a rain deficit
of -41.54” last year.
Some of
these places didn’t just beat the old records by a little; a few beat the
previous records by less than half of the old numbers! For example, Santa Cruz had only 4.78” last year compared to their
old record low of 11.85" in 1929. Over in Kentfield (a suburb of San Francisco)
they picked up 7.80" last year compared to the old record of 20.30"back
in 1939!
Now, yes, parts of California are always dry, like Death
Valley. So, let’s put things into perspective. Last year Death Valley picked up
a total of 2.17” of rain. Paso Robles picked up only 1.92” (10.86 inches below
normal). King City picked up only 1.98” (10.08 inches below normal). Even
cities like Burbank and Los Angeles weren’t too far behind. Burbank only had
3.03” (14.28” below normal); downtown Los Angeles had 3.60” (11.33” below
normal).
That
heat relates to the high temperatures as well. Three record high temperatures
have already been set just outside of Los Angeles area so far this year, and we
are only eight days in! That same area saw seven days in December alone with
record high temperatures.
It was
the eighth hottest year on record for Phoenix.
Tucson had its fifth hottest year on record. In Australia, last year was
the hottest year since records have been kept in 1910. Just how hot was it in
Australia? So hot they had to add new colors to their temperature maps! (here’s a map to show you). To make matters worse, Brisbane is expected to get above
105° Saturday, and 102° for northern parts of New South Wales.
Sources: National Weather Service, Australia Bureau of Meteorology, NOAA, Weather.com
