December 2011 was the third driest on record in San Francisco. San Francisco rainfall records date all the way back to 1849. Several other San Francisco Bay Area locations experienced their second driest December. In addition… December 2011 was the driest on record in Salinas.

Locationdecember 2011  record driest/    normal Dec
                rainfall          year              rainfall

Santa Rosa      0.09 2nd driest   0.00 1989         6.19
Kentfield       0.12 2nd driest   0.00 1989         9.91
San Francisco   0.14 3rd driest   0.00 1876,1989    4.56
Oakland         0.08 2nd driest   0.00 1989         4.58
San Jose        0.08 2nd driest   0.04 1989         2.61
Santa Cruz      0.13 2nd driest   0.05 1989         5.68

Location        December 2011     previous          normal Dec
                rainfall          record            rainfall

Salinas         0.05 driest       0.07 1989         2.44

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precipitation climatology
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                     Jul 01-       Jul 01-       Jul 01-  Jul 01-
                     Jan 2         Jan 2         Jan 2    Jun 30
station              2012    pon   2011    pon   normal   normal
------------------   -----------   -----------   -------  -------
SFO int`L aprt        2.87    37    9.70   124     7.85    20.65
Oakland aprt          3.07    38   10.67   132     8.07    20.81
Moffett Field         1.77    34    5.77   110     5.26    14.68
San Jose aprt         1.55    30    5.30   101     5.24    14.90
Santa Rosa aprt       4.46    30   19.61   132    14.84    32.20
Salinas aprt          3.31    78    6.93   162     4.27    12.83
San Francisco DWNTN   3.37    36   12.76   136     9.40    23.65

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Pon – % of normal follows the July 01 – Jan 1 amounts.

See: http://www.drought.gov/portal/server.pt/community/drought_indicators/us_drought_monitor