By Reginald Stanley. Posted July 1, 2023, 7:26 AM.

The third La Nina winter in a row brought different, wetter results to Southern California compared to the previous two winters.

This La Nina brought a considerably healthy rainy season to much of California, with a wide arrangement of wintry storms between November and the end of March. While many stations in the WeatherCurrents network received their wettest, most significant season totals since 2010-2011 - another notable factor in the 2022-2023 winter was how consistently colder than average it was across the region. Cooler than average temperatures have persisted throughout the region almost non-stop since November 2022, even during the wettest winter storms. This also meant that a high number of winter storms threatened low-elevation snow in many parts of the region, in addition to boosting snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains following several years of drought. The months of January and March were among the wettest such months at most WeatherCurrents stations, while the region also saw a very mild June. The Fall and Winter of 2022-2023 was particularly noteworthy in that it featured almost no warm offshore flow/Santa Ana Wind episodes, as opposed to around half a dozen during a more typical winter.

Lake Elsinore recorded the highest season total in the WeatherCurrents network with 27.74 inches. The communities of Fallbrook, French Valley, East Hemet, Murrieta, Temecula, and Simi Valley also all received over 20 inches for the season. In Temecula Valley's Wine Country, a season total of 27.98 inches was observed (courtesy of Jim Sappington). The winter was the region's wettest season since 2019-2020, and for some locations, it was the wettest season since 2010-2011. The La Nina winter of 2022-2023 marked the third La Nina winter in a row - the last time a three-year La Nina occurred was in 1998-2001. Interestingly, the first two of those three La Nina winters were drier than normal, while the third La Nina winter was considerably wetter than normal. The same pattern has been observed in the 2020-2023 three-year La Nina. The Climate Prediction Center announced on June 8 that El Nino conditions have developed during the Spring of 2023 and are expected to gradually strengthen into the 2023-2024 winter.

Here are the season totals for the WeatherCurrents network and associates. WeatherCurrents stations in Beaumont (Cherry Valley), De Luz, Riverside (Presidential Park), Riverside (Orangecrest) and Wildomar were excluded due to inaccuracies or extended station outages there. Season averages were only calculated for stations with five or more years of complete precipitation data:

1. Perris and Moreno Valley season totals incomplete.