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

Over the past week, Northern and Central California received two to three times as much rain as it usually does up to this point in the month. As much as five feet of snow fell across the peaks of the Sierra Mountains. Round two of what Californians are calling “Miracle March” begins Thursday.

An atmospheric river of moisture over the Pacific Ocean has been pointed like a fire hose at the West Coast since last week. The plume spans over 2,000 miles across the Pacific, and gets its nickname “the pineapple express” from its origin around Hawaii.

Been pretty wet the last few days. Streams are full, rivers are full. Without doubt, come summer, we’ll wish we had saved more of what is just running out to sea now, but apparently we’re not smart enough as a state to do that.

The solution has been known for years: You build Sites Reservoir west of Maxwell, and divert some of that extra water there. There’s plenty of rain water available from the roughly 10,000 square-miles of untapped Sacramento River watershed between Oroville Dam and Shasta Dam, but there’s just no way to save it now.

Sacramento dries out for at least 24 hours before the parade of storms begins again to drench the north state later in the week. Residents should have a rainless Tuesday to pick up branches scattered by the weekend’s high winds and clear roof gutters choked with leaves and rain water. The numbers tell the story of a wet start to March in Sacramento.

The series of storms that marched into the city are much like what used to visit Sacramento before drought. The storms extended over several days.