San Francisco did break the record of 1917 as of January, but just barely. Had the rains begun a day earlier as forecast, the monthly record would have held. Anyway, the drought is definitely not the end of life as we know it and it would be premature to abandon our cliff dwellings and migrate north.

The nearly half a foot of rain in February already guarantees that the 2013-14 season will be wetter than 1850 and 1975, and it is my very strong suspicion that rains thus far in March will push the season past 1897 as well. Not even in the top three!

What is truly remarkable is how closely the season is tracking 1917. I still want to find the time to sort the data for patterns like this. For background on the graph see here and here.