24-hour storm puts month’s rain totals well above average

A storm that blew through Fresno over the weekend raised January’s rain totals to nearly 2 inches above the 30-year average for the month, said Jim Andersen, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Hanford.

The 24-hour period from 4 p.m. Friday to 4 p.m. Saturday dumped 0.48 inches of rain on Fresno.

The rainfall brought Fresno’s January total to 3.37 inches – 1.74 more than the 30-year average of 1.63 inches, Andersen said. In January 2015, Fresno only had “a trace” of rain.

It’s not close to the record, however. In 1969, an El Niño year, 8.56 inches of rain fell in January, kicking off the wettest year Fresno ever had, meteorologist Jim Dudley said.

Andersen said that although this rainfall is a nice reprieve, it’s still not enough to make up for the drought years.

“It took us four years to get into this situation – it’s going to take us a lot more to get out of it,” he said.

Tuolumne Meadows received 15 inches of snow from the storm, bringing its snow depth to 63 inches. Lodgepole received 4 inches of snow. Other places likely saw snow as well, but Andersen said that the ability to calculate snowfall puts the National Weather Service “at the mercy of someone who’s going to call it in.”

Some patchy fog is expected Sunday morning, but there will be more dense fog on Monday as people return to school and work, Andersen said, and people should watch for foggy-day schedules.

The forecast high for Sunday is 57 degrees, and it will begin to warm up through the week, reaching a high of 62 degrees by Wednesday. Lows should remain in the low 40s for most of the week after a low of 39 on Monday night.

The next storm system isn’t expected until Saturday. “We’re going to dry out for a bit,” Andersen said.

This story was originally published January 23, 2016 at 7:03 PM with the headline "24-hour storm puts month’s rain totals well above average."