Drought in California, January 1 to 31, 2014

Name: Drought in California, January 1 to 31, 2014
Start: 2014-01-01T00:00
End: 2014-01-31T23:59
Location: California

January 1 to 31, 2014 · NWS STO · 1 event in 1 county or zone

January was an abnormally dry and warm month for interior Northern California. Many record high temperatures were broken, and a state-wide drought was declared on January 17th.

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS STO wrote it up.

January was an abnormally dry and warm month for interior Northern California. Many record high temperatures were broken, and a state-wide drought was declared on January 17th.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Sacramento, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 31, 9:45 PM PST, 2 hours 15 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 31, 9:45 PM PST, 2 hours 15 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SACRAMENTO CA
945 PM PST Tue Dec 31 2013

.Synopsis...
High pressure along the west coast will continue dry and warm
conditions through the coming week. A slight chance of
precipitation may be possible early next week as a weak trough
moves over the west coast.

&&

.Discussion...
Strong ridge remains over the eastern Pacific extending over
Norcal. This is bringing mostly clear skies and light winds.
Patchy fog and frost will be possible towards daybreak,
especially over the San Joaquin valley Stockton-Modesto.
Temperatures at 9 pm are running 2-4 degrees below yesterday at
this time. Current forecast lows in the low to mid 30's at valley
locations look on track and no evening update will be needed.

.Previous Discussion...
Skies have cleared quite a bit today as a weak disturbance riding
the ridge up north tracks into the central US. In addition,
temperatures are running a little warmer today due to the sunnier
skies and strength of the ridge. Patchy fog and frost will likely
return tonight across the Central Valley.

The strong high pressure will continue along the west coast this
week, and varying amount of high clouds will filter through
northern California the next several days. Another weak
disturbance will skirt over the ridge through the Pacific
Northwest early Friday but any chance of precipitation looks
limited to far northern California or north. Shen

&&

.Extended Discussion (Saturday through Tuesday)

After the Friday shortwave moves through, a ridge of high pressure
will build off the West Coast northward all the way into Alaska.
This will bring continued warm and dry weather this weekend
through early next week.

The medium-range models continue to indicate a weakening of the
ridge in the neighborhood of next Tuesday as a weak shortwave
trough moves through the region. The system isnt expected to be
particularly dynamic nor will it have much moisture. For the time
being, we'll maintain a 20% chance of rain across the area for
next Tuesday.

Dang

&&

.Aviation...

Mainly VFR conditions the next 24 hours. Conditions should locally
deteriorate to MVFR/IFR in the Southern Sacramento Valley &
Northern San Joaquin Valley after 10z and continue through
Wednesday morning. Light winds continue. JBB

&&

.STO Watches/Warnings/Advisories...
None.
&&

Event by event

1 drought. Local standard time, as filed.

Drought, Southern Sacramento Valley

When: January 1, 12:00 AM PST to January 31, 11:59 PM PST
Where: Southern Sacramento Valley forecast zone
Reported by: Official NWS Observations

A plethora of records were set across interior northern California for January. The following is from one of our oldest record sites, Downtown Sacramento. The highlights include: the longest dry period (52 days) during the rainy season from Dec. 8th, 2013 to Jan. 28th, 2014 that did not receive measurable rainfall, the third driest January in history since 1950 with 0.20 inches of rainfall which is only 5% of normal, highest January average maximum temperature of 66.1 degrees, new all-time record high for the month of January set on Jan. 24th of 79 degrees, broke the number of days with high temperatures of 70 degrees or higher with 3 days, record high temperatures were set on 12 different days, and lastly, everyday of January 2014 had a daytime high temperature that was above normal for the month for Downtown Sacramento.

What these are

Drought: A drought reaching severe (D2) or worse on the US Drought Monitor, or with notable impacts.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in California in 2014 Every state in 2014 This day in weather history Warnings in California, January 2014

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 497009.