We're only halfway through March and we've already picked up above average amounts for our monthly rainfall, yet most of us remaining in the severe ranking of drought status. How can that be?
Well let's look at the numbers... To be exact, Bakersfield has picked up 0.85" in the last two weeks, which is a quarter inch more than we usually get for the whole month of March. And there are more storms coming! But the drought continues because we have to look at the season totals overall, and those don't look good.
Since the water year began back on October 1, we have received 2.17" of rain in Bakersfield, but on average we should have 4.96" by now. So yes we are thankful for an impressively wet March, but we'd have to get another three inches of rain to get out of the drought, and that's just not going to happen.
However it's not all bad news! We have more rain coming Friday and Saturday this week and potentially Thursday and Friday next week. So as we continue to enjoy this wet respite from our very dry Winter, at least we can continue to put a pause in the drought for a couple more weeks, even if we can't improve it.
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