Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

County Rainfall Up

For the first time in quite a while, the area was on the plus side of rainfall.

According to data from John Teeter, local meteorologist, the normal amount of rainfall for January is 3.76 inches, but this region received 3.78 inches, giving it a 0.02 surplus for the month.

He said it rained nine days during the month, with the single largest amount in a day falling on Jan. 8 when 0.85 inch fell.

However, Teeter said rain was not the most significant precipitation event. On Jan. 7, 0.25 inch of sleet hit the ground in the Prescott area, while greater amounts of sleet accumulated in the southern part of Nevada County. This weather occurrence required hundreds of man hours of work to get the roads cleared and utilities back in service.

Cale weatherman Davis Benton concurred with much of Teeter's findings.

Benton said the Cale area received 5.68 inches of rain in January, with three inches of snow hitting the ground on Jan. 6.

The thermometer plunged in the Cale region with below freezing temperatures recorded from Jan. 6-19.

The lowest temperature recorded for the month, Benton said, was 15 degrees on Jan. 18. The high for the month was 80 on Jan. 4.

Teeter said 79 was the warmest it got in Prescott, also on Jan. 4, with the low of 15 being recorded on Jan. 11 and 17.

The average temperature for the month was 43.4 degrees, 1.9 degrees above the norm of 41.5.

Teeter said the record high for January is 84 degrees, with this recorded in 1917, either on the 7th or 9th. The exact date, he said, is illegible, but it is one of those two days.

On the other hand, a low of eight below zero was recorded by a telegraph operator when this agency kept the weather records. Unfortunately, though, the date of this reading is also illegible. More recently, however, there have been readings of 0 on several dates as lows.

Teeter said those in the weather game like to identify "cold" months as one during which the temperature is below freezing for at least four hours on half the days of the month. There were 15 sub-freezing days during January, so, he said, it can safely be called a "cold month.

"Checking through all legible records," he said, "since 1941, we find the average number of sub-freezing days is 14.8. Most sub-freezing days recorded are 31, in 1941; with the fewest at 0 in 1971."

The greatest annual snowfall recorded in a January was 19.75 inches in 1948. The largest single day snowfall total, Teeter said, is 8.6 inches, which fell on Jan. 18, 1992.

There were no severe weather watches or warnings posted during January.

Turning toward February, Teeter said the normal amount of rainfall is 4.27 inches, while the normal temperature is 41.9 degrees.

"Over the years, February has been our most erratic weather month," he said, "so look out."