It’s been one of the wettest Octobers in the last 10 years, meteorologists were happy to report —with more rain expected midway through the weekend.
NBC Bay Area’s meteorologist Rob Mayeda said that by early Friday morning, Bay Area rainfall for the month passed levels not seen since 2011.
For instance, San Francisco’s airport had already tracked 2.20 inches by early Friday morning, compared to only .01 inch at this time last year, and 1.69 inches five years ago. At 2.91 inches of rain, Livermore’s October rain total to date is the highest since 1972, when it peaked at 2.98 inches.
San Jose had received .78 inches through 9 a.m. Friday, a “significant” amount, Mayeda said, considering fall rain totals had been just one-third of an inch until now.
And by the end of the weekend, Mayeda suspected that totals could make 2016 the wettest October since 2004 in places with a windy and wet storm due on Sunday that could also bring high surf to the coastline and thundershowers to parts of the region.
Still, he cautioned, especially to those wondering if this precipitation would end the drought, that two of three similar October starts in 2007 and 2011 ended in below average totals for the rainfall year. In 2009, there was a moderate El Nino year, which saw near- to slightly below average rainfall.
