Heat near record; no sign of rain
Marin County nearly broke heat records this week as a late-autumn dry spell continued with no major storms in the forecast.
The National Weather Service recorded a high temperature of 69 degrees in Kentfield on Tuesday, just shy of the 71-degree record for the date in 1988.
On Monday, the temperature in Kentfield hit 72 degrees, tying the record of Dec. 7, 1925, the weather agency reported.
“This is about 10 degrees higher than normal,” said Anna Schneider, a meteorologist with the weather service. “It’s typically a wet season by now. But it’s a couple of months into the water year, so we don’t know how much we’ll end up getting.”
A cooling trend is expected to begin Thursday, with temperatures dropping to the mid-60s in Marin County. A chance of light showers is in the forecast for the weekend.
The water year starts Oct. 1. In a typical year, the National Weather Service would record 8.72 inches in Kentfield from Oct. 1 through Nov. 30. This year, the gauge has recorded only 2.37 inches, Schneider said. The same gauge recorded 27.7 inches of rain for the 2019-20 water year. The prior year was about 58 inches. A 30-year average for that gauge was unavailable.
The National Weather Service rain gauge at the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael has been out of commission because of construction, leaving the Kentfield gauge the agency’s only official tracking system in Marin.
At Lake Lagunitas, the Marin Municipal Water District recorded 35.3 inches of rain during the 201920 water year. That is 67.6% of the average rainfall of 52.2 inches.
So far this year, the rainfall total at Lake Lagunitas is 3.40 inches, or 29.04% of average for the date, changing slightly from Nov. 18 when it measured 3.16 inches. For the same time period last year, the district recorded 15.17 inches. The average is 11.71 inches for the date, according to the district.
Overall, the district’s storage at its seven reservoirs was at 46,556 acre feet on Tuesday. That’s equal to 58.51% capacity and 86.97% of average for the date.
The North Marin Water District storage at Stafford Lake is at 28% capacity. The water storage is typically low early in the rain season because the reservoir is used for single-year storage only.