Dry February puts Sonoma County rainfall behind 2015’s paltry totals

It was a beautiful day to get outside Monday. Sunny, 70 degrees, the faintest hint of a breeze, and not a cloud in the sky.

Laszlo Perlaky, 26, and Bence Greifenstein, 23, were in the Bay Area visiting their friend, 22-year-old Anna Kim of Fremont. The three of them decided to take advantage of the warm weather and hike up Taylor Mountain. By the time they’d returned to the parking lot, Greifenstein had taken his shirt off.

“Trying to get a tan,” he said, laughing.

Sharon Carlson, 60, of Rohnert Park was there, too, packing up a bag before she headed out to play a round of disc golf. “I’m here every day,” she said. “Rain or shine.”

“It’s definitely been beautiful weather - February, are you kidding me?” said Joel Swanlaw, part of another group just leaving the course. The 33-year-old Santa Rosan and his two friends, Robin Blaney, 34, of Petaluma and Robert Baba, 31, of Forestville, all had the day off, and what with the weather, they figured disc golf up on Taylor Mountain was a pretty perfect way to spend it.

“We have the day off and it was beautiful, and, you know, we wanted to throw some discs around,” Blaney said. “I am a little worried that El Niño hasn’t come. I keep thinking, like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah - it’s going to come. But, here it is, February, and we’re having the same weather we’ve had for like three years.”

Blaney’s concerns are warranted.

At the tail end of what was supposed to be a historic El Niño season, Sonoma County has, in fact, seen less rain than in the 2014-2015 season.

From October 2014 to Feb. 28, 2015, Sonoma County had 22.86 inches of rain, according to AccuWeather. From October 2015 through Monday, we’ve had just 20.19 inches of rain.

And the current total isn’t close to the average of 27.20 inches - not that it was last year, either.

Steven Anderson, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, said rain should pick up again late this week and into next.

“We’re certainly talking several inches, at least in the coastal mountains,” he said.

He added that the North Bay can expect above-normal rainfall for March, based on longterm models from the Climate Prediction Center. Normal for March is 4.98 inches.

“March is really our last chance for any significant rainfall,” Anderson said. “Once you get into the April time period, the hose turns off.”

As far as snowpack in the Sierra goes, estimates range from 90 percent of normal in the north to 74 percent of normal in the south. The snowpack, which essentially functions as a reservoir for most of the state outside the North Coast, was the worst ever measured last year and was gone by April 1.

“We’re still hopeful we’ll be above normal by the end of the season (in September),” he said. “We have had miracle Marches in the past.”

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.