What's That Wet Stuff?

What's that wet stuff falling from California skies?

Could it be the "R" word, rain? 

Or what Wikipedia calls "liquid water in the form of droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then precipitated—that is, become heavy enough to fall under gravity?"

It is.

A winter storm is pummelling California, soaking the parched earth. Talk about drenching the three-year historic drought. We're getting reacquainted with umbrellas, raincoats and rain boots. And leaky roofs, heavy sandbags, massive flooding, and power outages.

Of course, the drought is far from over.

Reporter Paul Rogers, in a piece in today's San Jose Mercury News headlined  “California Drought: Winter Storms Finally Starting to Boost Storage Levels in Key Reservoirs," quoted Jay Lund, director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences as saying: ""It's the middle of December, and we've had two good storm systems. This could be the end of the drought; we won't know until late March. But it is certainly an easing of the drought."

On the UC Davis campus, everyone received an Aggie Alert on Wednesday morning, Dec. 10: "A severe winter storm with high winds and heavy rain is forecast for northern California beginning about 10 p.m. this evening, Wednesday, Dec. 10 and continuing through Thursday. At this time, there are no plans to cancel classes or suspend campus operations, but plan for travel delays and use caution when moving around campus. For once, cycling is not recommended."

When cycling is not recommended on the UC Davis campus, that means this is serious rain.

Let's hope we get more of this serious rain. It's been a long time since we've seen rain drops on ladybugs.