Precipitation Numbers Set a New Record—62-inches of Water Content

And the winner of the water content contest is 2023 at a stupendous 62-inches, beating out the
previous “wettest year,” 2016-17 by nearly a foot. To put that in perspective, we all know grown adults around that 5-foot, 2-inch height. And, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power had to re-do their graph to accommodate this season’s numbers.

Prior to this year, the chart topped out at 50-inches; now the bar has been raised to 70-inches.
Hopefully, that will give the water gods enough room to grow, just not this year, please.

In one week, the weighted average of Owens Valley’s snow pillows grew by a tad over 4-inches. So we now stand at 288-percent of normal to date and 274-percent of normal as of April 1. Owens Valley did get some drizzle early this week, so those numbers will go up a hair.

Big Pine and Big Pine Creek still lead the snow pillow and rainfall numbers at 340-percent of normal to date (325-percent of the April 1 normal) and 23.71-inches total to date. Independence came in a close second at 299-percent, with a mere 12.84-inches of rain. Independence is obviously drier since Cain Ranch and Long Valley saw 18.26-inches and 19.05-inches respectively, but those numbers represent only 258- and 274-percent of normal to date.

Big Pine Creek snow pillows hit 340-percent of normal to date, followed by Cottonwood Lakes and Rock Creek at 319- and 318-percent of normal.

So, now that 2022-23 has set a very high bar, the rain can now stop.