- Author: Robert M. Timm
Late spring rains in Northern California have had everyone talking about the weather in recent weeks — especially during the last week of June, when an unusually late storm brought a half inch or more of rain to many areas of the North Coast. Weather data from our Center (accumulated since the early 1950s) reveal that for our typical Mediterranean climate and location, normally we get little or no rainfall between late April and early October. Shown here is a graph of cumulative rainfall measured at our Headquarters weather station (800 ft. elevation) from July 2010 through June 2011. Over this 12-month period, we received 43.13 inches of precipitation, as compared to an annual average of 37.33 inches at this location over a 57-year period. At our highest-elevation weather station, in Orchard pasture (2,900 ft. elev.), we receive approximately 25% more precipitation than at Headquarters.