Overnight rain pushes yearly rainfall in Menlo Park a notch closer to 20 inches

Update: Yesterday’s storm did bring about a foot of snow to the Sierras. Johnnie Powell of the National Weather Service in Sacramento commented, “We’ll take anything we can get.”

Emails InMenlo weather watcher Bill Russ Saturday morning:  “[I found] .35″ of rain in my gauge this morning, raising my season-to-date total to 17.85″. This may not seem like a lot but if you separate your fingers to approximate .35″, you realize that much rain fell on Menlo Park overnight. Also, 17.85″ does not qualify, in my opinion, as a drought year [for Menlo itself]. It does follow several low years, and, as reported elsewhere, the Sierra snowpack, which feeds water reservoirs, is non-existent.”

The accompanying photo is a protea in the Menlo Park backyard of Carolyne Zinko and Dan Dieguez, who, according to Carolyne, gets all the credit for making things grow there. She notes that they are blooming early this year.