The Storm of Record for the Southwest?

Time to geek out.

This series of storms you might have heard about out West have been interesting, exciting, miserable, and now record breaking. Back in March 1993, the "Storm of the Century" shattered a lot of pressure records in the East, which probably was one of the main reasons it will be remembered as the benchmark storm there. This situation isn't really any different. While most of the reports from out here are of the snow (3-8 feet in the Sierra), the heavy rain/mudslides and severe weather (at least six confirmed tornadoes this week in Southern CA), the most impressive statistics and records being broken are that of the barometric pressure.

Here's a list of spots that shattered their records, what the old record was, and what the period of record is:

Just as an FYI, locations that shattered their all-time lowest sea level pressures this week:

Los Angeles: 980.0 (990.6, 1/17/1988) Records to 1931
San Diego: 987.1 (994.6, 3/3/1983)
Las Vegas: 983.1 (987.8, 12/1949) Records to 1949
Fresno: 980.0 (985.4, 1/27/1916) Records to 1888
Bakersfield: 980.0 (990.0, 2/3/1998) Records to 1939
Phoenix: 988.8 (992.2, 12/13/1984, 5/21-22/2008)
Salt Lake City: 980.0 (982.1, 4/2002)
Reno: 979.0 (982.1, 1/27/1916) Records to 1870
Eureka: 978.7 (979.0, 2/1891)
Medford: 978.0 (979.7, 12/12/1995)

The Fresno, Reno and Eureka records are the most impressive, as their period of reliable weather records dates back into the 1800s. Anytime records like this fall, you're talking about an incredible storm.

Thank the El Nino for this one. This type of sequence of storms is classic of a Nino pattern....one week of drenching rains. May still happen again, but probably not until at least the middle or end of February.

Drought busting, this is not, but it's going to help relieve a lot of pressure. 40-90" of snow in the Sierra is fantastic news. Snow > Rain for drought purposes. One more series of storms like this, and the drought out here may be over for awhile. And that would be nice.