It’s rained more so far in the past six days of January in the Bay Area than in the past three Januaries combined.
By Wednesday morning, the official National Weather Service had clocked 1.76 inches of rain in Santa Rosa, 1.33 inches in San Francisco, 1.13 inches in San Jose, and .95 inches in Oakland.
Last year, all those rain totals were zero.
In 2014, the rainfall charts in those four cities ranged from about .12 of an inch to .04 of an inch. And in 2013, the rainfall chart showed totals ranging from .93 inches to .29 inches.
NWS forecaster Diana Henderson said it’s not surprising the numbers seem so relatively high this year, as California has suffered through more than four years of drought. Now, the state is entrenched in the beginning of a wet El Niño winter.
But while the current precipitation makes this January the Bay Area’s wettest since 2013, the rainfall is far lower than the past, record-setting wet Januaries.
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Historical NWS data shows San Francisco’s wettest January was in 1862 when 24.36 inches fell, Santa Rosa’s was in 1909 when 18.46 inches fell, San Jose’s was in 1911 when 12.38 inches fell and Oakland’s was in 1998, the last previous El Nino, when 12.44 inches fell.
NBC Bay Area's Kari Hall and Anthony Slaughter contributed to this report.
