Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Current Weather Dry As 1930's

Nevada County is currently in the driest weather pattern since the "Dust Bowl" years of 1930-31, according to meteorologist Davis Benton of Cale.

Benton said only 1/4 inch of rain fell in the Cale region of the county during April.

Since 1930, he said, there have been only four other years with rainfall totals in April of less than 2 inches.

On the other hand, the wettest April occurred in 1957 when 12.78 inches of moisture fell. There have been six years with April seeing 10 inches of rain or more.

According to Prescott weatherman John W. Teeter, the normal rainfall for April should be 5.25 inches. However, Prescott saw only 2.88 inches, for a deficit of 2.37 inches for the month.

Teeter said the normal amount of rainfall for the year through April should be 18.53 inches. But this hasn't happened, as 1996 has only seen 8.81 inches of moisture fall.

This means the region is 9.72 inches below normal for the year.

To make matters worse, during the past 16 months (including the drought of 1995) the area is 26.31 inches below normal of rainfall.

"This could be serious when the normally dry months of summer arrive," he said.

Rain fell eight days during April, Teeter said. The largest single amount of rainfall was 0.76 inches on April 13.

During the month, there were seven watches and warnings, three less, Teeter said, than average. Normally, there have been 10 watches and warnings in April in the past 24 years.

In 1974 there were 21 watches and warnings posted in April.

The average temperature was also higher than normal for April. According to Teeter's figures, the average temperature was 63.1 degrees, 2.8 degrees above the average of 60.3.

April 29 had a record low for this particular day when the mercury dropped to 39 degrees. This, however, wasn't the lowest temperature recorded during the month, as 31 degrees was attained on April 7.

The high temperature for the month was 88 on April 19.

The normal rainfall amount for May is 5.28 inches, while the normal average temperature is 71.3 degrees.