SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – The National Weather Service is gauging the impact of the recent storm that blanketed San Diego County.
“Yesterday was the first significant storm that we’ve had here in Southern California the entire winter,” Alex Tardy from National Weather Service San Diego said.
They said we’ve gone from our driest start to the rainy season to the third driest ever.
That’s a bit of an improvement, but San Diego County is not out of the woods yet.
“We think we’ll see some improvement with this recent rain. But, we think it’ll be very subtle,” Tardy said.
Tardy told ABC 10News that most places saw 1 to 2 inches of rain with the storm.
And getting rain during this month is impactful.
“When you miss storms in February, you get in a deficit significantly,” Tardy said.
Tardy said the area is not expected to see another storm this month.
“So our deficit was over 5 inches. And, when we get an inch and a half of rain, you can kind of do the math. We’re significantly below where we should and need to be,” Tardy said.
Tardy showed ABC 10News a map of the drought conditions for the region. He said at the start of the winter – our rainy season – there was no drought. He said we slipped into Extreme Drought Level 3 two weeks ago due to the driest start to the season.
“The current drought situation reflects that. We’re in the red, which is extreme. Nowhere else has seen the conditions go from basically a white map to a red like we have in Southern California,” Tardy said.
Tardy told ABC 10News that following a storm like we saw on Thursday does draw attention to fire weather conditions later on.
“So if we only see one or two more storms and we ended up the year six inches below normal, that really set the stage for an early fire season. It sets the stage for actual drought impacts like water restrictions,” Tardy said.
He said right now, it’s not a time to panic.
“That’s only because we still have March to go. We still have April. We still have the California water supply, the snowpack,” Tardy said.
But drought is something you have to reevaluate each month.
“We just need to keep some type of storm cycle in the West to at least help us as we go forward,” Tardy said. “Otherwise, you know, come this time in June, we will be looking at major extreme drought conditions persisting across Southern California.”
