San Francisco Bay Area Forecast: More Rain This Week

Good news for our ability to sustain a population of 39 million, bad news if you were planning a picnic:

The National Weather Service forecasts one-quarter to 1.5 inches of rain, depending on location, coming the Bay Area's way through Wednesday night. Light rain should start late today, in the North Bay, before a stronger system moves in and dampens the entire region.

Wednesday morning the rain should diminish, but thunderstorms are possible over the North Bay, the weather service says.

But wait, there's more ...

Another, weaker system will bring as much as a half-inch of rain to the North Bay, most of it Thursday night. And yet even more systems are lining up in the Pacific, preparing for landing Saturday and into next week.

Not to belabor the point, but the current rains do not mean that the drought is over. Well, you may ask, what's it gonna take, then? Paul Rogers addressed that question in the San Jose Mercury News over the weekend.

Simply put: The drought could end this year, according to state water officials. But for that to happen, as California enters the fifth year of the worst drought in the state's history, rains will have to continue arriving in pounding, relentless waves through April to fill depleted reservoirs and dry rivers and push the Sierra snowpack to at least 150 percent of normal.

But, Rogers goes on to say, "there isn't widespread agreement among scientists and water managers about what signifies the finish line." So the final decision rests with the man who last January declared the statewide drought emergency: Gov. Jerry Brown.

Jeanine Jones, a drought manager at the California Department of Water Resources, told Rogers the state drought task force will make a recommendation to Brown on whether to rescind the emergency declaration sometime after the rainy season. Before that, on Feb. 2, the water board will vote on whether to relax the 25 percent mandatory water cuts, in place since June.

For more on what must occur so that you can flush your toilet again, check out National Geographic's "These 4 Things Need to Happen to End California’s Drought."