With the Bay Area experiencing a relatively wet and lush winter, it’s easy to forget that nearly half of California is still suffering from extreme and exceptional drought levels. That’s why the State Water Resources Control Board is moving forward on a revolutionary new plan to develop and adopt measures to convert recycled water into drinking water. People, realize that “recycled water” is just a more pleasant-sounding euphemism for wastewater, or sewage.

Got outdoor plans this weekend? Might want to cancel them. Stockton could see its wettest day in more than two years on Sunday, and Saturday won’t be much better, as another atmospheric river drenches California from the Pacific Ocean.Somewhere north of 2 inches of rain is expected over the weekend, and that doesn’t even include the earlier storm that moved in Tuesday night and early this morning, bringing wind gusts expected to top 45 mph.

Weather over the past year was extreme. It ranged from a historic blizzard to record-breaking heat. At times, it was deadly. This map explains nearly all of it: rain and drought — the yin and yang of U.S. weather in 2016. Even with a very strong El Niño, the vast majority of the West ended the year with below-average precipitation. In the Deep South, flash flooding threatened lives and property over and over. In the Southeast, an epic drought fueled deadly wildfires.

Welcome to Drought Denier Corner, a home for crackpots like me who think the “drought,” at least as defined by the powers that be, is a bunch of baloney. Here. Put on this tin foil hat and hear me out. The dictionary defines drought as, “a period of dry weather, especially a long one that is injurious to crops.” By the common definition, then, a drought ends when the rains come. Big rains, at least. Well, they came.