Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

County Rainfall Below Normal For September

By JOHN MILLER

A shortfall of rain in September has put the area in a deficit situation for the year.

According to John Teeter, area meteorologist, the normal amount of rain for September in Prescott is 4.29 inches. However, last month only 2.09 inches of the wet stuff hit the ground. This left a shortage of 2.20 inches for the month.

And, he said, the normal yearly total for the year at the conclusion of September is 41.41 inches. But, with the lack of rain during last month, there has only been 39.62 inches for the year to date. This means the area is 1.79 inches below normal.

There were only seven days during the month when rain fell. The largest single amount, Teeter said, was 0.79 inches on Sept. 25.

There were also no watches or warnings for severe weather during the month. This is unusual as there are normally three watches and/or warnings for September.

While September, 1997 was dry, Teeter said it wasn't the driest on record. In 1948 a scant 0.08 inches of moisture fell to earth during September. On the other side of this coin, the wettest September was a year later in 1949, when the heavens opened dumping a whopping 14.03 inches on the region.

With the area in a deficit situation for yearly rainfall totals, Teeter said if October doesn't have its normal amount of rain the county could be in serious trouble in the event of fire.

The normal amount of rain for an October, he said, is 4.33 inches.

The high temperature for September was a sweltering 97 degrees on Sept. 1. The recorded low was 54 on Sept. 5-7.

There were two record low high temperatures for the month. When the mercury only climbed to 73 degrees on Sept. 24, and 70 on Sept. 25, records were set for those two days, but not for the month.

The average temperature for the month was 75.3 degrees, or 0.4 degrees above the normal temp of 74.9.

Teeter said the normal average temperature for October is 66.5 degrees as the area heads deeper into fall weather. In addition, he said there are usually three watches or warnings during the 10th month of the year.