May 2000-2 1/2 Year Drought

Nov 1998-Present

May 2000 will go down as the driest month every since I began keeping records in Dec 1997. May of 2000 is also the driest May every. Typically 4.29" falls in May. This year, 0.00" was recorded. This is just a month in many over a course of 2 1/2 years of drought.

The drought started in November 1998 when El Nino faded away and La Nina started to take control of the weather. Several months in 1998 where above normal for rainfall, but overall, we where -15.22" below normal or 72.3% of normal rainfall. So far for 2000, we are at :10.22" or 52% of normal rainfall (Normal Year to Date: 19.51" Departure form normal: -9.29")

May was the hottest month so far. Most of the month, the temp. was 90º or higher. The highest temp. was 101.3ºF. The Dew Point (Td) and Relative Humdity (Rh) was very low (30% or less) almost every afternoon (25 of 31 days; 80.6%).

ACTUAL RAINFALL	NORMAL RAINFALL
November 1998
0.59	2.38
December 1998
0.43	3.36
1999
January 1999
*4.25*	3.90
February 1999
1.32	4.00
March 1999
0.63	4.28
April 1999
2.13	3.04
May 1999
0.59	4.29
June 1999
*8.86*	6.44
July 1999
2.17	7.24
August 1999
*9.57*	8.06
September 1999
5.12	6.17
October 1999
*2.24*	1.86
November 1999
1.85	2.38
December 1999
0.20	3.36
38.93	55.00
2000
January 2000
*4.32*	3.90
February 2000
1.10	4.00
March 2000
3.07	4.28
April 2000
1.14	3.04
May 2000
0.00	4.29
10.22	19.51
*=above normal month

Below are graphs showing data for May, indicating the drought.

shows the daily extremes for May

shows the daily extreme for dew point for May

shows the daily extreme for relative humidity for May

May 2000 Summary Table