For the second straight week, the drought monitor shows good news.
Last week's drought monitor showed that D4 or Exceptional Drought had left the state.
This week, we've seen the same thing with D3 or Extreme Drought, with less than one percent of the state remaining in that category.
D2 or Severe Drought has drought has dropped to less half of the state, from nearly three quarters last week.
While we still have a long way to go to completely shake the drought, recent heavy rains have most of the state running well above average for the water year.
In Bakersfield we've picked up 3.53" since October 1st, which is 1.24" above average for this time of year.
Rain totals have been even more impressive in Northern California and along the coast.
For example, San Francisco has received 17.4", an impressive 8.59" above average.
The snowpack in the Sierra looks very healthy too, running at 192% of normal in the Northern Sierra, 229% of normal in the Central Sierra, and 267% of normal in the Southern Sierra.
As far as our water storage locally, there's a lot to like too.
Lake Isabella has risen from around 51,000 acre-feet on January 1st to 90,000 acre-feet Thursday.
In all of 2022 the highest storage level in Lake Isabella was 81,000 acre-feet.
The last time the reservoir has over 90,000 acre-feet of storage was back in June of 2021.
Those levels are likely going up, too, with more rain in the forecast.
Scattered showers are possible Friday, but little rain is expected.
A better rain chance comes Saturday.
Rain will move into Kern by early Saturday afternoon, and continue into the evening.
Rain totals look light for the Valley, like 0.10" to 0.33", but heavier in the mountains, especially around Lake Isabella, where 0.5" to 1.0" could fall.
We'll once again be watching for flooding and rockslides in areas that pick up heavier rain.
An additional system looks possible Sunday into Tuesday, but the details on that storm are still not as clear.
