What a difference a year makes, when it comes to October rainfall in Grass Valley. The Climate Program Manager for the National Weather Service in Sacramento, Craig Shoemaker, says there was only point-70 inches of rain for October of last year, one of the driest years on record. But he says there was over 10 inches for this October, which is also the wettest on record. The previous record was about 8 and a half inches, set in 2010. Shoemaker says it wasn’t due to any particular weather phenomenon, like La Nina…

click to listen to Craig Shoemaker

But Shoemaker says this doesn’t necessarily mean an above-average rain and snow season…

click to listen to Craig Shoemaker

And Shoemaker says the first week of November is expected to be dry. And normally when you get this much rain it’s due to warm systems that don’t produce much snow, which is always critical for future water supplies.