The weekly Drought Monitor was issued this morning and it contains no change to the conditions in our area. We remain between D2 (Severe Drought) and D4 (Exceptional Drought) with the worst conditions experienced south of SF Bay and inland. Please see attached images.
The heavy rains of December had kept our rainy season (July 1– today) totals close to normal for a while, but the dry weather of 2015 has pushed our seasonal numbers back to below normal for most locations (exception Monterey airport and Moffett Field). Note that for our calendar year rain of 2015 so far, we have experienced only 15-38% of normal at local observation sites.
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mtr/rr4.php
Fire season will begin to become a concern with the warm weather likely to start brush budding up early which in turn may help fire season to get an earlier start than normal.
The National Interagency Fire Season Predictive Services report for March 1.
