Every millimeter (.039 inches) of rainfall triggers a radio transmission that is recorded on a base station computer at City Hall. This provides a record of the amount and the timing of the rainfall. The rainfall totals from the base station computer are uploaded to the web page every 5 minutes. The City gauges have been located so that, in addition to rainfall, they can collect streamflow and water level information at critical flood monitoring locations. Also, it is anticipated that additional gauges will be added to provide more coverage of the City. This network can send emergency alerts via text messaging and/or email for heavy rainfall. If you would like to receive these alerts, please send your request with your email address and/or cell phone number to Ed Schenk at email Edward Schenk.
Annual Rainfall Totals By Zip Code
Paso Robles receives an average annual rainfall of about 14.71 inches per year, and most of this precipitation falls during winter and early spring. The city commonly receives less than 10 inches of rain per year and typically, no rain falls from May through September.
The 30-year average annual Paso Robles rainfall is 15.17 inches, falling on an average of 47 days. The wettest year was 1941 with 29.19 inches of precipitation and the dryest year was 1947 with 4.24 inches. The most precipitation in one month was 14.76 inches in January 1916. The most precipitation in 24 hours was 5.25 inches on December 6, 1966. Although snow is rare in Paso Robles, 4.0 inches fell on April 5, 1929, and on December 15, 1988.
For added insight, this indicator also tracks the occurrence of unusually high total yearly precipitation. It does so by looking at the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), which compares actual yearly precipitation totals with the range of precipitation totals that one would typically expect at a specific location, based on historical data. If a location experiences less precipitation than normal during a particular period, it will receive a negative SPI score, while a period with more precipitation than normal will receive a positive score. The more precipitation (compared with normal), the higher the SPI score. The SPI is a useful way to look at precipitation totals because it allows comparison of different locations and different seasons on a standard scale. Figure 2 shows what percentage of the total area of the contiguous 48 states had an annual SPI score of 2.0 or above (well above normal) in any given year.
Graphs can provide a quick overview of wet and dry periods. Below is a small view of the annual rainfall graph for Bungaree, near Ballarat, Victoria. It shows rainfall history back to the 1881. The gaps are years with insufficient data. Red annotations have been added to this example, marking some of the historic Australian drought years, as well as the driest and wettest year at Bungaree during this time range. You can also view graphs for each month, for example: October rainfall graph for Bungaree. Graphs of daily rainfall totals for each year are also available, for example: 1973 graph for Bungaree
You can get Monthly and Daily rainfall tables. Monthly rainfall tables are best for reviewing rainfall history. They list the monthly rainfall total for all years of record, and they also link to each year of Daily rainfall. Daily rainfall tables list the rainfall recorded for each day of that year. They're most useful for checking specific rainfall amounts and rainfall totals for the current year. 2ff7e9595c
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