A heavy storm on Sunday dumped enough heavy rain on Redding to break a 129-year-old precipitation record.
A deluge of 1.39 inches fell in parts of the city on April 26, smashing the 1.05-inch record set in 1897, according to National Weather Service data.
That storm brought the year’s rain total closer to Redding’s average rainfall for this time of year after a very dry March, according to weather service data. A total of 15.08 inches of rain fell on Redding from Jan. 1 to April 26, 2026 — almost a third of it (4.05 inches) fell in April.
But Sunday’s storm may not be enough to pull the city out of an unusually dry period starting in May or June, climate scientists said.
The Redding area fell several inches short of its average rainfall for the first four months of 2026 (18.55 inches). Right now, there’s a 50/50 chance Redding will have drought this summer, said Idamis Shoemaker at the weather service’s Sacramento branch.
“Significant fire potential is expected to remain near normal in April before increasing to above normal from May through July, with lightning in July remaining a key forecast wildcard,” said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The odd thing is rain totals in Redding since the beginning of the water year (Oct. 1, 2025) are almost exactly normal. The city got 30.08 inches, just a hundredth of an inch short of the historic average from Oct. 1 to April 26, Shoemaker said.
How could Redding be in an unusually dry period this spring if the city got so much rain last winter?
The answer has to do with when the rain fell and how fast it came down, climate scientists said.
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Weather whiplash: How fluctuating storms affect Redding and California
An almost bone-dry March and sporadic rain in January and February prompted climatologists to wonder if Shasta County and other parts of far Northern California would shift into drought this summer.
Redding’s abnormally dry spring is a precursor to an unusually dry summer, even for an area that gets little to no rain from June to August, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
It can be confusing because when storms show up, they tend to be heavy and may cause flooding in low-lying areas. Wet storms dropped rain in short heavy bursts on Redding this year and last, enough to cause flooding in December and February in 2025.
While 17 inches of rain fell during the first four months of 2025 — about 1.5 inches below the city’s average — more than half of that precipitation (10.13 inches) fell during flood-producing storms in February.
This story was updated to add a video.
These alternating patterns of wet and dry called hydroclimate whiplash are showing up more often in California and worldwide, said UCLA weather scientists.
Hydroclimate whiplash was responsible for the massive deadly fires that scorched parts of the Los Angeles area in early 2025.
Clusters of atmospheric rivers dumped heavy rain on Southern California during winter 2022-23, “burying mountain towns in snow, flooding valleys with rain and snow melt, and setting off hundreds of landslides,” UCLA climate researchers said. Grasses and other plants grew thick and tall due to the rain, so when record heat followed in 2024, the dry, dead grasses were tinder ready to burn. Unusually strong dry winds fanned flames and spread fires like the Palisades and Eaton fires in January 2025.
“Rapid swings between intensely wet and dangerously dry weather” are “due to climate change, with further large increases expected as warming continues,” UCLA weather scientists said.
Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica on Record Searchlight Facebook groups Get Out! Nor Cal , Today in Shasta County and Shaping Redding’s Future. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Redding storm smashes 1897 rain record. Is this hydroclimate whiplash?
Reporting by Jessica Skropanic, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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