San Diego has received nearly four times more rain in the first half of May 2019 than it usually does throughout the entire month.
The month of May sees on average .12 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service. In the first two weeks of May 2019 alone, San Diego has received .42 inches of rain with even more storms expected before the month ends.
"Were only in mid-May and were already over our rainfall [average], what we would normally see for the entire month; we’re already at about three-tenths-of-an-inch above that," NBC 7 Meteorologist Sheena Parveen said.
Parveen said a May with that many consecutive rainy days is not typical for San Diego. It has rained for 8 out of May's first 17 days, though only five of those days saw measurable precipitation.
"What’s unusual about our weather pattern right now is that we’re seeing multiple days of showers and the fact that weather systems are able to make it into Southern California and hold their moisture content as they approach," Parveen said.
The unusual rainy season is due to a larger number of storm systems approaching the West Coast this year with little interference from upper-level winds, Parveen said.
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"We’re just in kind of a wet pattern here, which is unusual for this time of the month," she said.
NBC 7 Meteorologist Dagmar Midcap noted that the showers, while at time heavy, are not part of an atmospheric river, a column of vapor that pulls moisture from the Pacific Ocean to dump showers across the West Coast.
Midcap said the NWS is classifying the systems as cold pacific storms with winter season characteristics.
