California's long-running drought just keeps on going.
Despite hopes that a rainy December would ease conditions in the parched state, drought conditions came surging back in the new year — with a vengeance. Northern California is currently in the midst of its driest January on record.
San Francisco has seen exactly 0 inches of measurable precipitation so far this month, according to the National Weather Service. You can see from the highlighted column in this data table that every day in January has been the same: no rain.
On average, San Francisco receives nearly 4.5 inches of precipitation each January, so a total lack of any rain is both noticeable and alarming. In fact, this will be the first year it's happened since people first started keeping records in 1850, according to the Washington Post. And it's even more shocking when you realize that January is usually the PEAK of the wet season in Northern California.
Slightly further north, the state's capital of Sacramento has received a grand total of only 0.01 inches of rain this month, in comparison to its usual January average of 3.73 inches. And San Jose is barely ahead of the game, with 0.02 inches of rain so far this month.
In fact, as of January 27, almost the entire state of California remained in a state of extreme or exceptional drought, according to the US Drought Monitor. And much of the western US is also still suffering from various degrees of drought.