End of La Niña could bring rain to SLO County later this month

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• SLO wasn't very wet in January

  SLO wasn't very wet in January

  Only about half the normal amount of rain fell in San Luis Obispo in January, which usually is one of the biggest months of the year for precipitation.

  It is the same situation so far for the 2011-12 rain year that ends in June — slightly more than half the normal rainfall has occurred, according to an analysis by John Lindsey, who has been forecasting local weather for more than 20 years.

  Cal Poly, the official home for weather keeping in San Luis Obispo, recorded 2.89 inches of rain in January. That’s 56 percent of the normal total for the month.

• Showers on Central Coast this week may turn into a much-needed storm Friday

  Showers on Central Coast this week may turn into a much-needed storm Friday

  San Luis Obispo is at 42 percent of its normal rainfall for the season so far

• SLO County has driest December, January on record so far

  SLO County has driest December, January on record so far

  San Luis Obispo County is having its driest December and January since rain records were first kept in 1869, according to local forecaster John Lindsey.

  Since Nov. 21, only 0.18 of an inch of rain has been recorded at Cal Poly, the official home for local climatology. Through Friday, 5.5 inches of rain should have been measured, he said. Put another way, Lindsey added, only 3 percent of normal rainfall has fallen since Nov. 21.

  “January is not over with, and we might be in for some rain in the last week of January, so that record probably won’t hold up … but if the pattern holds to the end of January, it will be the driest we have ever seen,” said Lindsey, a community relations specialist with PG&E who has been forecasting local weather for more than 20 years.

• Out of the dryer, into the rinse

  Out of the dryer, into the rinse

  Bob Blanchard of Old Creek Ranch near Cayucos gazed at the dry coastal hillsides this winter with great concern. The Santa Lucia Mountains and Irish Hills took on a bronze hue that looked more like their appearance during summer than the Celtic green normally visible during winter.

  “This winter’s dry spell was grim. We were looking at a disaster and trying to figure out how we would keep our herd together this summer.” Blanchard told me.

  The Blanchards and many other coastal ranchers were evaluating purchasing feed, selling their cattle or even moving their herds northward along the Oregon coast this summer.

• Oh, what a lovely dry month

  Oh, what a lovely dry month

  It’s been dry, really dry. San Luis Obispo has only recorded 0.18 inches of rain since Nov. 21. According to rain records from Cal Poly, the official home of climatology for San Luis Obispo, December through January is approaching the driest ever. The records go back to the 1860s.

  The driest December-through-January period occurred during the 1976 rain season, which recorded only 0.19 inches of precipitation at Cal Poly.

  Hopefully, the expected rain later this month will keep the 1976 record intact.