A funny thing happened on the way to our usual wet season. Mother Nature turned off the spigot.
December 2011 in the Lake Almanor Basin was the driest in more than a decade. Only 0.32 inch of total precipitation was recorded at the automated site near Prattville, as compared to more than 5 inches in an average December.
Only a fraction of typical November moisture arrived in the Lake Almanor Basin this year.
The monitoring site near the shoreline at Prattville recorded 1.18 inches of total precipitation, which is well under the 4-inch average for the month. The total includes the moisture content of 16.5 inches of snowfall recorded on the West Shore, a figure that is well above average for November.
The new precipitation year began July 1 and after four months the Lake Almanor Basin has accumulated 2.10 inches, or about 63 percent of the long-term average.
Almost all of that arrived in early October, either as rain or in the form of two inches of wet snow. A slow start to the precipitation season is relatively common for this region as we complete our customary summer drought period.
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