Santa Rosa nears all-time record rainfall

It's the final countdown, Santa Rosans. By the end of the day, it's likely this rain year will officially be the wettest on record, according to the National Weather Service.

By 11 a.m., 55.09 inches had fallen at the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport, according to the weather service.

As far as they're concerned, Santa Rosa is just .59 inches away from shattering a record in place since 1983, when 55.68 inches fell in Santa Rosa from October to September.

But records are tricky business, with the official weather station having moved over the years, and regulations guiding placement and proper measuring procedures changing over time, too. Because of that, the official NWS records for Santa Rosa only date back to the 1902-1903 rain year, when 28.75 inches of rain fell in Santa Rosa from July to June. That's before another change in record-keeping happened. The weather service now considers Oct. 1 to be the official start of the rain year, further complicating rainfall tracking.

A number of Bay Area weather watchers, including Art Hayssen, a meteorology instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College who's been tracking Sonoma County weather for about 50 years, point back to what they say was an even wetter year than anything the weather service has on record: 1889-1890, when 56.06 inches of rain fell in Santa Rosa from July to June.

But even that total is likely to be passed up soon, if not today.

Bob Benjamin, a forecaster with the National Weather Service said that by tonight, another inch of rain could fall in Santa Rosa, with more on the way Sunday, though that precipitation total won't compare to what's fallen in the past 24 hours.

After that, it's pure sunshine on the horizon, he said.

Check back later for updates.

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 707-521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.