How California’s Rainy Season Is Shaping Up So Far

With its Mediterranean climate, California receives most of its annual precipitation in just a few months, with the bulk of it falling from December to February.

That means that by the time March 1 comes around, we usually have a good sense of how much water we’re going to have for the rest of the year.

The state keeps track based on a “water year” that runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, so the whole winter rainy season will fall in the same year’s statistics. As of Sunday, California had received slightly more rain than usual this winter — 105 percent of the average, according to state data.

In some parts of the state, though, it’s been much rainier than normal.

Los Angeles, which just endured one of its wettest storm systems on record, had received 159 percent of its annual average rainfall as of Sunday. San Diego was at 133 percent, and Paso Robles at 160.

Though the winter storms have often been damaging, they’re mostly good news for the water supply. The state’s reservoirs are at a healthy 119 percent of their normal levels, in part because they are still benefiting from the back-to-back “atmospheric rivers” that slammed California last winter.

But the state’s snowpack, which accumulates in the Sierra Nevada and typically provides 30 percent of the state’s water supply for the year, isn’t faring quite as well.