Last year and this year are both La Nina years, where the ocean waters are cooler than normal near the equator which impacts the flow of weather systems. Last year was an abnormally wet La Nina for California (not all La Ninas are dry or El Ninos wet, it is often over simplified).

Last year at this time 99% of the state has normal or above normal rainfall and nowhere was listed in drought.

This year 80% of the state is listed as dry or worse. 50% of the state is considered in drought. Here on the Central Coast part of the north coast and north county area in SLO county is in the abnormally dry category running between 2 and 4″ below normal.

It has not rained since the middle of December, and it has been since the first third of November since we have seen a significant rain of more than an inch.

Nothing to get excited about in our forecast at this point. There is a chance of showers Sunday but little to no measurable rain is expected and beyond that just some hopes that the last week of the month may feature some rain, but at this point it is pretty speculative.