Weather
in the Barron Park area of Palo Alto
I have been measuring rainfall since the year
1978/79 through 1984/85 and then 1989/90 through the present. During that 22
year period the year the wettest year was 1982-83, when Barron Park received
35.2 inches; 1997-98 was the second wettest with a total rainfall of 31.9 inches.
Last year, 2005-06, rainfall amounted to only 21.4 inches or 21 percent above
the median, amounting to 6 inches above the median (15.3). The median rainfall
over this period is 15.3 inches; the driest year recorded amounted to only 8.9
inches in 1989-90.
It is interesting to note that over this
twenty-two year period the mean rainfall has been higher than the median.
The year 2005 was also a little cooler than
normal with the average temperature some 1.0 degrees below the fifteen-year
average. Over the fifteen-year period that I have been measuring temperatures,
the climate has been getting slightly cooler. As the Chart
on annual temperatures shows, they have been declining by 0.13 degrees each
year. While the globe maybe warming, Palo Alto has not been.
Chart of Cumulative Rainfall By Month in Barron Park
for the year 2005-06, Updated October 25, 2006
Chart on Average Monthly Median Rainfall
Updated October 25, 2006
Chart on Average Monthly High and Low Temperatures
and the temperatures for 2006. Updated October 25, 2006.