As long-awaited rain comes to the state, regulators said Tuesday that California cut its water usage by 20.3% in November, staying on track to meet the target set by Gov. Jerry Brown.

 

The savings percentage, compared with November 2013, was the lowest in six months of reporting and moved California’s cumulative savings to 26.3% from 27.1% in October. The November savings is still slightly above the 25% cutback that Brown called for.

If the weather so far this week is any indicator of what El Niño can bring to San Diego County and the rest of California, then people should be ready for a prolonged mix of relief and misery.

 

Relief because the extra rainfall and snow would go a long way toward ending the state’s drought, which has lasted four consecutive years.

To understand the power and potential dangers of El Niño, look at satellite images of the Pacific Ocean on Sunday.

 

At least four storms were brewing — the farthest still getting going in Asia — and all aimed at California.

 

It’s this pattern, a series of back-to-back-to-back storms seemingly arriving on a conveyor belt, that concerns officials bracing for potential damage from the predicted winter of heavy rains.

 

“El Niño storms: it’s steady, not spectacular. But it’s relentless,” said Bill Patzert, climatologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. “It’s not 10 inches in 24 hours and nothing afterward.

The North Pacific storm that blew ashore early Tuesday will last until mid-evening and will drop at least an inch of rain at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field, says the National Weather Service.

 

“The system will taper off into scattered showers tonight, but there will be a second wave of rain starting Wednesday night, and it will be even heavier,” said James Thomas, a weather service forecaster. “Lindbergh could get 1.4 inches of rain by early Thursday.

The precipitation from the two storms could easily surpass Lindbergh’s average January rainfall of 1.98 inches.

An effort to create commemorative Salton Sea license plates has been slow to take off.

Last year, the Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau began working with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to sell the specialty plates.

The plates cost $50 to $98, depending on whether the driver wants to keep his old license number. A portion of the money would go to the Salton Sea Authority to benefit environmental restoration of the sea.