It's been a wacky winter weather-wise for Northern California, with a downpour in October, a dry November, massive snowfall in December and what may be one of the driest Januarys on record.
This is not San Francisco's driest January ever, but it is close, meteorologist Jan Null told KCBS Radio.
"In 2015, there was zero for the month, we're going to have .61," he said. All of which we got on Jan. 4. In 2021, San Francisco's January rain index was 2.83, more than four times greater than this year.
Despite rains of biblical proportions in October and December, the Bay Area still needs as much downpour as possible. "We actually still do really need it because the reservoirs are likely below normal," Null explained.
As for the next time it will rain, Null said the National Weather Service does not know. "It doesn't look like, certainly, through the end of the month," he said.
Due to a "split-flow" of wind across the Pacific, California will stay dry for at least another two weeks, he predicted in a Twitter post.
Past the end of the month, weather forecasting becomes "long range" and less reliable. "If somebody really had the answer for long range forecasting, they would probably be the richest man on the planet," Null mused.
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