You are now in California and the U.S. category.

In the past, powerful El Niños have typically delivered about 22 inches of rain to the city by this time; the current amount is far below that. To reach the El Niño average of 30 inches by the beginning of summer, the NWS writes, “we would need more than two tenths of an inch every day through the end of May.”

That seemed improbable a few days ago — and still iffy today — but there’s a developing weather pattern that’s boding drenching days ahead for drought-struck California. Weather models are predicting torrential rains through the weekend, with more than 12 inches of precipitation possible in the mountains.

 

Even though the region is going into a wet cycle, that news isn’t enough to lift California out of its four-year drought. While the snow survey at Phillips Station today was the best March reading since 2011, statewide the water content is below average.

At the field adjacent to the road leading to Sierra-at-Tahoe the snow depth on March 1 was 58.3 inches, water content 27.1 inches, which is 105 percent of the long-term average. Statewide the snowpack is 83 percent of average.

We have been snookered, hoodwinked, bamboozled and beguiled.
We bought a “Rolex” watch from some guy on the street corner. We believed we won millions in some foreign lottery. We gave money to the nice young man at the front door who said he was supporting an orphanage. We took financial advice from Bernie Madoff.

And when we were told we would be subjected to monster storms this winter, we believed it.
We repaired the roof and replaced the gutters. We laid in a supply of sandbags. We placed cisterns beneath the downspouts. We bought kayaks. We stopped conserving water.

Last June, at the height of California’s drought, the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that a homeowner in Bel-Air was using 1,300 gallons of water per hour. Annually, that works out to about 11.8 million gallons – enough water supply for 90 average households.

Reaction was immediate. Water agencies, other homeowners, and the public denounced the waste of water by the unidentified homeowner as careless and irresponsible.

Californians who hoped that El Nino-driven storms would unleash a heavy dousing to the drought-parched state in February instead saw less rain than normal for the month, but forecasters said March could still deliver.

Predictions of an El Nino winter, bringing a series of heavy storms to the West Coast, had been greeted optimistically in California, which has grappled with a crippling, four-year drought that has killed millions of trees and cost the state’s agricultural economy an estimated $1.84 billion.