Dry California soaks up series of winter storms

SAN FRANCISCO – Hours of steady rain Saturday from Northern California’s third winter storm in a week raised hopes that the state was moving out of its driest three years in history – while still locked deeply in drought.

“It’s a marginal improvement. Marginal being the operative word there,” said Bob Benjamin, a National Weather Service forecaster, as showers in the San Francisco Bay Area tapered off late Saturday morning.

In fact, after last week’s three back-to-back winter storms, much of the state was doing noticeably better for rain than last year, but still well below normal for this point in the year. Through October, the last three years overall have been the driest in California’s history, according to the federal National Climatic Data Center. By last summer, 58 percent of the state was rated in the most extreme category of drought, and scores of communities instituted voluntary or mandatory water-saving measures.

Forecasters said each passing storm raises the likelihood that a persistent, storm-blocking ridge of high pressure that sat off California last winter, blocking rain, is finally history.