Record Cold To Some, Record Heat to Others

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