2013: What Seems to be Los Angeles' Driest Year on Record

This Christmas, residents and tourists alike in Southern California received an unusual gift: 80 degree weather. Such nearly record-breaking temperatures can be attributed to a high pressure system over the great basin, which created an offshore flow that funneled hot air into the southland. 

However, this calendar year has been dubbed "LA's Driest" with only 3.60 inches of rain, far below the yearly average of 14.91 inches. According to the National Weather Service, the current (soon to be former) driest calendar year on record tied between 1953 and 1947, when only 4.08 inches of rain fell on downtown LA.

Fortunately, this "rainfall year" which began July first  and will culminate on June 30th of next year, is not near the driest, the record-holder being the 2006-2007 rainfall year with only 3.21 inches of rain total. 

With Santa Ana winds and rising temperatures expected over the next few days, the fact that 2013 will be the driest calendar year on record for Los Angeles is becoming set in stone.