The drought is still with us -- make no mistake. But, if this past week is any indication, we're on the path toward a very wet El Niño winter.
With the passage of the three weekend storm fronts and the major storm that plowed through the county on Monday, suddenly there is a little more reason to be optimistic about our water supply as we look toward 2010.
Here are the rainfall totals for the three recent storms; the figures are preliminary but should give you some indication of how much rain you got in or near your neighborhood since Friday.
- Oceanside Airport - 0.96
- Carlsbad Airport - 1.00
- Vista - 0.97
- Cardiff Encinitas - 0.58
- Montgomery Field - 1.16
- Fashion Valley - 0.71
- Lindbergh Field - 0.66
- National City - 0.65
- Chula Vista - 0.59
- Brown Field - 0.51
The last storm quickly moved out of the County Sunday.
It rained off and on rain overnight, some of it heavy at times, and we could still see some widely scattered, isolated leftover showers through noon. For most of us though, the skies have begun to clear and for all of us, it will be partly cloudy and dry by sunset.
Due to the warmth of these storms the snow level stayed well above the 6100' height of the local mountains though the resorts at Big Bear and Wrightwood did receive at least a few inches of new snow in the higher elevations.
Local
The rest of the week looks dry with mostly sunny skies the next couple of days then some mid-level clouds by mid-week. Right now there's no rain in the forecast through next weekend.
We've gotten enough rain this past week however to keep the ground saturated and your sprinkler systems turned off through the coming week.
As for temperatures: we'll be in the low 60s Sunday and Monday, moving into the mid and upper 60s on Tuesday then upper 60s and low 70s at the coast into Saturday while valley temperatures slowly build back toward the mid and upper 70s for the weekend.
