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

Butte County got a best soaking of the rainfall year from the storm that rolled through Monday and Tuesday, with another shot due to arrive Thursday. Wednesday might be the only nice day of the week, according to the National Weather Service, which is forecasting Thursday’s storm could linger until next week. The past storm brought more to the area than it had total so far this rainfall year, which began Oct. 1, roughly doubling the rainfall totals. Monday and Tuesday brought 2.24 inches of rain to Chico, 0.95 inch to Oroville, and about 5.4 inches to Paradise.

Scientific reports published over the past several years have been unambiguous. The delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast, is on the brink of collapse. Starved of freshwater inflow due to dams and water diversions, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta’s health has faced a precipitous decline over the past few decades. The recently released Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan offers our last best hope to revive the estuary that defines our region.

When California officials got serious about building two giant tunnels to divert freshwater out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, it didn’t take critics long to propose alternatives. One of the first was a grassroots scheme that, at first, seemed radical and counterintuitive: Let winter floods retake vast parts of the San Joaquin Valley – the very farmland that needs those Delta water diversions. The floods would recharge depleted groundwater that could then be used to irrigate the farms, preventing the need for Delta water exports.

Rain will douse California late this week, with the potential for some rain to reach southern portions of the state. While the rain will be beneficial in terms of the drought, enough rain can fall to cause travel disruptions and localized flash flooding from Thursday to Friday. More than 40 percent of California is dealing with extreme to exceptional drought, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor released on Oct. 20. Prior to the late-week dousing, showers will affect portions of northern and Southern California into Tuesday before dry weather returns for a time.

Some bad news for avocado lovers — some local restaurants have taken the fruit off their menus due to a shortage. Several things play into this shortage, including California’s drought and an early harvest. Plus, according to local avocado farmers, growers in Mexico went on strike because they weren’t happy about the prices they were getting. “And that’s what you have now, is a created shortage by them because they did a shutdown,” said Alan Cavaletto, Morro Creek Ranch General Manager.