California IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Light Rain Fails to Dent State Drought

Light rains fell over parts of Northern California as drought watchers looked back on a rainy season that lifted the state “from a near catastrophic situation up to a bad situation.” Bill Helms, of the state drought center in Sacramento, said the benchmark of the drought, runoff from the Sacramento River Basin, is expected to be the lowest in the past five years. Showers fell from San Jose to Santa Rosa, but National Weather Service meteorologist Duane Dykema said the rainfall was not significant. Less than .01 of an inch had been measured at the weather service station in Redwood City. “Most of the helpful rains end in March,” he said.