This year, 2023, has been one of many weather surprises, extremes and changes — from winter’s record precipitation to the moderate spring, a boiling summer and then a rare hurricane appearance last month.

In the final weeks of July, Idyllwild set five high temperature records; then last week, another high temperature record was tied. On Wednesday, Aug.30, the daytime temperature reached 93 degrees. In 80 years of weather data, the only other time 93 degrees occurred on an Aug. 30 in Idyllwild was recorded in 1955, nearly 70 years ago.

While the record heat remains our most recent memory, perhaps precipitation will be the actual longterm memory from 2023.

Hurricane Hilary brought more rain to the Hill, but this merely added to the volume that has fallen throughout the year. The National Weather Service (NWS) defines a “water year” as the precipitation recorded from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30 of the following year.

As of Aug. 31, three local weather stations had already recorded more precipitation in the 11 months of the current water year than the water year average for the past 75 years. The average since 1948 has been 25.7 inches in a year.

At the Idyllwild Fire Department, 28.5 inches has been recorded since October 2022. At the Dutch Flats station, NWS has 32 inches and at the Forest Service’s Keenwild Station, 33.2 inches have fallen.

In the past 10 years, the average precipitation has been 21.9 inches, about 85% of the longer-term average. The Dutch Flats and Keenwild recording stations have already exceeded the annual average in precipitation since Jan. 1.

For the Hill, NWS is reporting 36.8 inches of precipitation so far this water year.

All of this rain has virtually eliminated drought conditions throughout the state. As of Wednesday, Aug. 30, only 6.6% of California was in a drought condition. Slightly more than 5.3% was abnormally dry and 1.3% is suffering from moderate drought conditions. None of the state is incurring severe, extreme or exceptional drought.

August 2019 was the last time this much of California was void of any drought conditions.