Long term drought continued through the month of February. After a relatively wet January, a period of extremely dry and warm conditions returned for most of February.
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.
The episode as NWS STO wrote it up.
Long term drought continued through the month of February. After a relatively wet January, a period of extremely dry and warm conditions returned for most of February. This prevented the snow pack for the northern Sierra and southern Cascades from growing much, and actually decreased it in some locations by the end of the month, down to around 90% of normal, 85% for the whole state. Reservoirs across the area continued to increase but generally remained below normal levels. Folsom Lake was an exception to this, rising to 111% by the end of February. The Department of Water Resources increased water delivery projections to 30% of requests, up from a 15% estimate in late January. However, the dry conditions through the month prevented a larger anticipated increase.
Extreme drought continued to be detected by the U.S. Drought Monitor across most the region, with exceptional drought for the northern San Joaquin Valley, the central and southern Sacramento Valley, the Burney Basin and the Sierra. A small portion of the northwest forecast area in the Coast Range was downgraded from extreme to severe drought by the end of the month.
Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency for the entire state of California January 17, 2014 and this continued to be in effect. He extended the executive order requiring Californians to continue conserving water through October 2016. At the end of January 2016, the California State Water Control Board approved an eight-month extension of the existing drought-related emergency regulations with just some minor adjustments.
Local Emergency Proclamations have been issued for El Dorado, Glenn, Lake, Plumas, San Joaquin, Shasta, Sutter, Tuolumne, and Yuba counties. The cities of Live Oak Lodi, and Ripon continue in a drought emergency. Drought task forces have been established in Butte, Lake, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Tuolumne, and Yolo counties to coordinate response to the drought.
Mandatory water reductions of 25 percent as ordered by Governor Brown continued to be in effect statewide, though Californians missed these targeted reductions for the month
The state continued to supply food assistance to those impacted by the drought, along with California Disaster Assistance Act money for those who have lost drinking water due to dry wells. Nonprofit organizations in the San Joaquin Valley struggled to meet the needs of their clients for drought-related programs.
A study released in late December by the Carnegie Institution for Science counted as many as 58 million trees statewide suffering severe water loss marked by browning leaves and dying limbs that’s far greater than previously thought. An earlier study by the National Forest Service reported 29 million trees already dead. Repercussions of this are that wildfires are likely to become more destructive, rivers and lakes that are naturally cleaned by forest ecosystems may become degraded, and less carbon dioxide is apt to be soaked up by trees.
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 Jan 31, 9:48 PM PST, 2 hours 12 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Sacramento CA 948 PM PST SUN JAN 31 2016 .SYNOPSIS... NORCAL WILL BE ON THE NORTHERN EDGE OF A STORM LOCATED TO THE SOUTHEAST WITH SCATTERED LIGHT SHOWERS EXPECTED TO OCCUR MAINLY OVER THE MOUNTAINS. GUSTY NORTHERLY WINDS WILL CONTINUE ACROSS NORCAL TONIGHT. MORE LIGHT PRECIPITATION WILL BE POSSIBLE FOR PARTS OF THE INTERIOR TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY AS A COUPLE OF WEAK SYSTEMS MOVE THROUGH. && .DISCUSSION... Energy is digging SSEwd with upper trof axis shifting Ewd into NV. Backwash clouds and showers (mostly snow) are rotating SSWwd over our CWA over the SErn portion of the CWA. Meanwhile...as energy drops Swd clearing is occurring in its wake...and a cold and dry northerly wind is blowing down the W side of the Vly. The core of the 925 mbs winds is forecast to move from the central Sac Vly and into the Nrn SJV after midnight...and mostly through our CWA early Mon morning. Thus...we issued the Wind Advsry earlier with this timing in mind. The winds at night may peak/lull most areas as the lower levels make an attempt to decouple. Mid-level CAA resulted in steepening lapse rates and some thunder in the far Wrn portions of the CWA...mainly Solano Co this afternoon. Some GS (small hail, not Golden State) was reported at KSUU...and graupel and snow showers were reported in the foothills...namely Paradise and Camino. JHM Winds will prevent fog from forming in the valley Mon...and will become lighter Monday night as a weak system moves closer to the region. On Tuesday the system moves over the region and may bring a few light showers to the interior but in general most places should remain dry most of the time. Wednesday another system will start to move into the region late in the day and may bring some more rain. The current timing brings some rain in the afternoon along the coastal and northern mountains and valley portions before bringing chances to most everyone else during the evening hours. && .EXTENDED DISCUSSION (Thursday THROUGH Sunday) The extended period is looking mild and generally dry. A weak system will bring some chances of precipitation on Thursday, but this looks relatively light and focused mainly over the northern mountains. Computer models are in better agreement for timing with this system, with most of the precipitation expected in the morning hours Thursday. By Thursday afternoon, the east end of a Pacific ridge should be building in with warming and drying conditions. At this point there are no significant systems apparent into early the next week, though there are early hints of a potential return to a wet pattern later in the week. Friday high temperatures are forecast to be above normal, and again on Saturday. A weak system passing mainly to the north may flatten the ridge slightly, then rebuilding on Sunday. Sunday temperatures could potentially be quite warm, with some spots in the Sacramento Valley in the mid to upper 60s and maybe even reaching 70. EK && .AVIATION... Wly flow alf as upr low movs thru tda vrg to Nly this aftn into tngt as Pac upr rdg apchs. Genly VFR conds for Intr NorCal nxt 24 hrs exc lcl MVFR/IFR/LIFR poss omtns in shwrs. Isold -tsra poss tda. Sn lvls genly aoa 020 msl. Areas Nly sfc wnd gsts up to 30 kts poss in Cntrl Vly aft 17z. && .STO Watches/Warnings/Advisories... None. &&
6 drought. Local standard time, as filed.
The Household Water Supply Shortage Reporting System indicated there were still some homes without well water due to dry wells, with 2 in Shasta County, 34 at Tehama County, unchanged from January.
The Household Water Supply Shortage Reporting System indicated there were some homes without well water due to dry wells, with 70 in Butte County, 28 in Glenn County, and 8 in Colusa County. This was unchanged from January.
The Household Water Supply Shortage Reporting System indicated there were some homes without well water due to dry wells, with 3 in Yolo County, 5 fewer than in January. There was 1 in Sacramento County, unchanged from January.
The Household Water Supply Shortage Reporting System had 1 home without well water in Solano County, one less from January.
The Household Water Supply Shortage Reporting System indicated there were some homes without well water due to dry wells, with 227 in Stanislaus County, 145 more than in January and 25 in San Joaquin County, 3 more than in January.
The Household Water Supply Shortage Reporting System had Calavereas county with 1 household and Tuolumne had 235 households. These were unchanged from January.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyWarnings in California, February 2016
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: 622052, 622053, 622055, 622056, 622058, 622060.