this has me somewhat confused. snow equals about 1/10th it’s mass in water, or 10 inches of snow contain one inch of rainfall equivalent. So, that missing 5ft of snow equates to 6 inches of rainfall. Is this small rainfall variance really critical enough over a 12 month period to cause an all-out crisis? I’m honestly not being critical, I just don’t get how it is so damning. We have annual variances of that magnitude all the time. So, unless CA’s annual rainfall total is like 20 inches, how does this play into the panic?
Northern and Southern California have very distinct climates due to uneven rain distribution, but as a whole, California averages 22.2 inches of rain annually.
Read more : http://www.ehow.com/facts_7302274_average-inches-rainfall-california.html
If the whole state average is 22.2 inches annually and that average is for an exceptionally WET century then 6 inches more or less makes a HUGE difference. South Carolina is a wet state with six inches or more sometimes falling in a single storm. In July 2013 we had fifteen inches of rain at my home or two thirds of California’s statewide average for a year but six inches more or less in a year still matters. We have just recovered from a very long drought which saw areas normally covered with two or more feet of water turned into dry tinder. I lost a number of large Red Oaks measuring as large as five feet in diameter due to drought stress.