November’s rainfall is responsible for Santa Barbara County experiencing “one of the wettest starts to a water-year on record.”
That’s according to Flood Control District Senior Hydrologist Shawn Johnson, who gauges the ebb and flow of rivers and reservoirs across the county and keeps close tabs on rainfall patterns, with decades of water data recorded by the county at his disposal.
Based on last water-year’s rainfall stats, measured between Sept. 1, 2024, and Aug. 31, 2025, Johnson told the Sun via email that this year’s rainfall already matched last year’s total percentage within just a few months.
“It’s noteworthy that the current [normal water-year rainfall] percentage is the same as last year’s entire rainfall—51 percent,” Johnson said.
In comparison, 2023’s and 2024’s rainfall counts—bolstered by both years’ atmospheric river-level winter storms—amounted to reaching 203 percent and 143 percent, respectively, of a normal water-year’s expected rainfall.
“Although the rain volume has been high to start the water-year, impacts have been limited, largely due to the dry watershed conditions early in the winter season,” Johnson said in an email interview. “Neither of the recent fire burn-areas experienced rainfall that reached the established burn-area debris flow rain intensity thresholds.”
Johnson was referring to the Gifford Fire and Lake Fire burn scars. The Santa Barbara County Fire Department focused on the latter during a recent briefing about mid-November’s rainfall with the Board of Supervisors.
“Yesterday, I spent my time driving around the Lake Fire and looking at what’s happening on the ground,” Deputy Fire Chief of Operations Anthony Stornetta told the board at its Nov. 18 hearing. “The Lake Fire is looking really good. We got some good growth from last year. Although it’s not deep-rooted growth, we have growth. We have some good vegetation out there. It’s holding everything back.”
Commenting on the Nov. 15 rain, county Public Works Director Chris Sneddon told the board that “while overall it was a good storm, … there were some areas, like the city of Santa Barbara, that experienced flooding.”
“In the city of Santa Barbara, it was the wettest start in the past 127 years,” Sneddon said at the meeting, referring to city records that date back to 1899. “We eclipsed the 1983 wettest start on record.”
While areas like the Santa Maria and Lompoc valleys experienced between 3 to 5 inches of rain, parts of southern Santa Barbara County, including the city of Santa Barbara, experienced between 7 and 11 inches.
“There was a fairly significant localized rain event along the county south coast—Santa Barbara to Goleta—with high intensity rain, Nov. 15, … creating flooding,” hydrologist Johnson said. “Urban areas are much more susceptible to runoff due to their extensive impervious surfaces that restrict absorption.”
This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 4, 2025.