Santa Rosa got soaked in January, breaking rainfall records

Santa Rosa got a soaking in January with 18.96 inches of rain, breaking records that date back more than a century.

'It kind of blew (the record) out of the water,' said Steve Anderson, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Monterey.

January's soggy onslaught also pushed the season total since Oct. 1 to 37.38 inches, more than one inch above the historical average of 36.28 inches for Santa Rosa. There are still eight months remaining in the rain year, Anderson said, noting that significant precipitation often falls not only during winter but also in March and April.

In Sonoma, the official rain gauge at Vallejo Home showed the year-to-date total at 25.14 inches, as of the last day of January; last year's total was over ten inches less, at 14.84.

And more rain is on the way, with showers expected the rest of today and another storm due on Friday bringing heavy rain during the morning commute, Anderson said.

The weather is expected to dry out over the weekend, followed by more rain next week.

'We're keeping an eye on that one,' Anderson said.

The storm door, shut for years during California's five-year drought, has been blown open with force.

'It's in the backyard somewhere,' he said.

Snow covered two-thirds of the Sierra Nevada Wednesday at an average depth of 41.6 inches and as much as 202.4 inches, or nearly 17 feet, according to the weather service.

The Sierra snowpack, source of a third of California's drinking water, was at 177 percent of the historic average, the biggest in more than two decades.

A new round of storms is expected to dump up to 3 more feet of new snow in the Sierra by this weekend, the weather service said.

Sonoma and northern Marin County get their water from the Russian River watershed, independent of the Sierra supply.

In Santa Rosa, rain fell on 17 out of 31 days in January, including two seven-day-straight stretches of precipitation, according to the Weather Underground website.

The 18.96-inch total easily topped the previous January record of 12.57 inches measured at the Sonoma County airport in 2010, Anderson said. Weather service records at the airport date back to 1999.

Measurements for downtown Santa Rosa go back to 1909, and the record there was 18.45 inches.

Anderson said comparisons between downtown Santa Rosa and the airport technically aren't valid because the measurement locations are eight miles apart.

An unofficial gauge in downtown Santa Rosa recorded 13.07 inches in January, the ninth wettest amount for that spot, he said.

There were no January rainfall totals available Wednesday for any other parts of Sonoma County.

Heavy rain early last month pumped the Russian River at Guerneville up to the 32-foot flood stage on Jan. 9, and it crested at 37.8 feet two days later, when water spilled a few inches over Occidental Road at the Laguna de Santa Rosa.

Some Guerneville residents paddled around in boats, but largely shrugged off the overflow.

'This is like a baby flood,' said Bruce MacDonell, whose home at the end of Neeley Road was high and dry, having been elevated years ago like many along the river.

The river hit its highest mark since 2006, when it rose to 42 feet during New Year's storms that created the most damaging floods in recent memory.

In February 1986, the river swelled to a record flood of 48.6 feet.

Lake Sonoma peaked at 133 percent of seasonal capacity on Jan. 23, while Lake Mendocino reached 140 percent of capacity Jan. 11, officials said.

Storm water retention by the two reservoirs reduced the river level in Guerneville by 1 to 2 feet, said Mike Dillabough of the Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the reservoirs in conjunction with the Sonoma County Water Agency.

The reservoirs can only control 18 percent of the water that storms pour into the Russian River, he said.

During the current break in rainfall, the Army Corps is 'safely releasing water' from the reservoirs, Dillabough said.

Nearly 49 percent of the state, including the entire San Francisco Bay Area and all areas to the north, is free of drought, according to last week's U.S. Drought Monitor. Moderate to extreme drought covered Southern and Central California.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.