Sacramento - in fact all of California - watches the snow and rainfall numbers with great interest every winter, anxiously awaiting the first rains in the fall and looking forward to drier weather in late spring. Rain and the snow melt fill the reservoirs on the Sacramento and American rivers, and provide water for the central valley's residents and agricultural land. No rain, rationed water.
We watch and comment on the rainfall totals several times a day, and watch them creep toward the "normal" 17.7 inches (by this time of year.) We breathe a big sigh of relief as we pass "normal", and feel elated, this year, because we are about 4 inches above "normal" right now, at 21.11 inches since July 1, 2005. Here's a recent news story about precipitation in the central valley from the Sacramento Bee. (Free registration may be required to view the story.)
In contrast, see this article from the Honolulu Star Bulletin, which describes a 6-week long storm that has been stalled over the islands since February 19, dropping over 126 inches of rain on Mt. Waialeale, and over45 inches in Punaluu. And that's in six weeks! SCUBA, anyone?
(Thanks, Earl, for the link.)
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