A lot of people are talking about the 118-day Vegas record of zero rain. Indeed, that's a long stretch, though Los Angeles (which gets far more rain than Vegas overall) has gone through longer stretches. In 1977, there was something like a 6-month stretch without a drop of rain falling. I remember being a little kid and my baby sitter pointing out the first drop of rain in 6 months, when it finally rained that year.

Prior to the rain which fell yesterday, Los Angeles was dealing with another phenomenon. While bits of rain fell here and there, the city had just 0.68 TOTAL inches of rain since March 1. We're talking about a period of more than 10 months, including typically rainy months such as March, April, November, and December! I went through rainfall totals of prior years, and could not find a single stretch like that (10 months or more) with less than 0.68 inches. That's a fluke.

Anyway, this storm dropped about 2 inches in most of southern CA, so that helps a little.

The ski resorts are struggling big time, though. This will help them some, but January is supposed to be a prime month for skiing, and right now it still isn't.