The 2011-12 precipitation season ended June 30 with the Lake Almanor Basin having received a somewhat less than average amount of water. The accumulated total precipitation for the year was 25.98 inches at the Prattville monitoring site. This comes to about 78 percent of average for the year.
A quick comparison of annual total precipitation percentages for the past five years shows the following:
—The 2011-12 season was 78 percent of average and nearly half of the 2010-11 season that reached the high of 140 percent of average.
A funny thing happened on the way to our usual wet season. Mother Nature turned off the spigot.
December 2011 in the Lake Almanor Basin was the driest in more than a decade. Only 0.32 inch of total precipitation was recorded at the automated site near Prattville, as compared to more than 5 inches in an average December.
Only a fraction of typical November moisture arrived in the Lake Almanor Basin this year.
The monitoring site near the shoreline at Prattville recorded 1.18 inches of total precipitation, which is well under the 4-inch average for the month. The total includes the moisture content of 16.5 inches of snowfall recorded on the West Shore, a figure that is well above average for November.
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