For the first time in 25 years, California is drought-free, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor. The last time this happened was December 2000. Due to the very wet start to the water year, which started on Oct. 1, many parts of California have doubled, tripled, or in some cases close to quadrupled their normal rainfall, NBC 7 Meteorologist Greg Bledsoe said. Last week, San Diego got a month’s worth of rain to start the new year. For example, more than two inches of rain fell at San Diego’s airport overnight on January 1st, which surpassed average rainfall totals for the entire month of January at just under two inches, according to Bledsoe. HIstoric rainfall 2026 First Alert Forecast Dec 31, 2025 San Diego County starts 2026 with historic rainfall San Diego weather Jan 1 Here's how much rain fell in San Diego communities on Thursday “It’ll finish as one of the top 15 rainiest days ever in the history of San Diego, dating all the way back to the 1930s,” Bledsoe said. It was a wet week for much of the region, with nearly all of California recording above-normal precipitation, along with much of Nevada and western Arizona, the U.S. Drought Monitor reported. Next week, the U.S. Drought Monitor says the driest areas for the nation are expected to be over California, central and southern Texas, and from the Carolinas into the Florida peninsula, where temperatures are expected to remain warmer than normal over much of the country. This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. ...read more read less