Did Fresno’s rainy December break records or help the drought? Here are the numbers
Fresno saw a “pretty good” month for rain in December, according to the National Weather Service, but we didn’t break any records for rainfall.
After a fairly dry November, December saw lots of wet weather pass through the Fresno area earlier this week, bringing rain and snow to Fresno County.
“We had a fantastic week for precipitation,” said Modesto Vasquez, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Hanford.
As of Thursday, 3.64 inches of rain had fallen in Fresno during December.
Meanwhile, the average rainfall in the Fresno area in December is 1.65 inches. This means we were nearly 2 inches above average for this time of year.
“That’s 220% above the normal,” said Vasquez. “We’re doing pretty good for the month of December.”
In fact, California saw so much rain in December that much of the state saw a change in its drought categorization.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Drought Monitor released new data on California’s drought conditions, and much of the state, including much of the central San Joaquin Valley, saw a change from category D4 “Exceptional Drought,” to category D3, “Extreme Drought.”
When were the wettest December months on record?
While Fresno has seen a higher than average rainfall, December 2021 won’t crack the all-time top 10 wettest Decembers on record.
The highest reported rainfall for this time of year in the Fresno area came in 1955 when more than half a foot - 6.73 inches - of rain drenched the city, according to NWS data.
The most recent year to make it onto the top 10 wettest December list was in 1996, when Fresno received 4.76 inches of rain.
Still, December’s rainfall was only about one-third of an inch less than the 10 wettest months on record, which was in 1884, when Fresno saw 3.98 inches of rain.
