How the rainy season in California is developing so far

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

That means that by the time March 1st rolls around, we usually have a good idea of ​​how much water we’ll have for the rest of the year.

The state tracks this on a “water year” basis that runs from October 1 to September 30, so the entire winter rainy season will fall into the same year’s statistics. As of Sunday, California had received slightly more rain than normal this winter: 105 percent of average. according to state records.

However, some parts of the state are seeing much rainier than normal.

Los Angeles, which had just experienced one of the wettest storm systems on record 159 percent of annual average precipitation from Sunday. San Diego was at 133 percent and Paso Robles at 160.

While winter storms have often been damaging, they are mostly good news for water supplies. The state’s reservoirs are at a healthy 119 percent of their normal levels, in part because they are still benefiting from the succession of “atmospheric rivers” that ravaged California last winter.

But the state’s snowpack, which accumulates in the Sierra Nevada and normally provides 30 percent of the state’s water supply for the year, isn’t doing so well.

Last year the snow cover was one of the largest on record, but as of Monday this year’s snow cover was only approx 82 percent of the average. Snow levels typically peak around April 1, the end of California’s rainy season, and current levels are just 70 percent of the April 1 average, according to state data.

But that could soon change.

A severe storm is expected to hit eastern California on Thursday and last through Sunday, bringing high winds and lots of snow, forecasters say. According to Brittany Whitlam, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Reno, Nev., the storm could drop seven to eight feet of snow in the eastern Sierra, and three to four feet at Lake Tahoe.

Forecasters are warning people to reconsider travel plans in the mountains as roads there are expected to be slippery and wind gusts dangerous. There have been other major storms in the region recently, but “this is definitely the biggest we’ve seen so far this season,” Whitlam told me.

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Tell us

What are the best movies from California? “Chinatown”? “Fear of heights”? “La La Land”?

Tell us which movie you would put on a California movie list and why. Email us at CAtoday@nytimes.com. Please include your full name and the city where you live.

And before you go: good news

For nearly 65 years, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Musical Instrument Repair Shop has been tuning, servicing and repairing instruments for LA’s public school students.

Since its founding, the workshop has been an essential but invisible part of the school system’s renowned music program, which is one of the last in a major American city to provide free musical instrument repairs to students.

Thanks to new funding, the future of the workshop – and LA’s school music program – has been secured. KTLA reports.

The LAUSD Education Foundation, a nonprofit that provides funding to the school district, announced a $15 million capital campaign last week to support the repair shop and ensure its longevity.

The fundraising was inspired by a recent Oscar-nominated documentary about the workshop called ‘The Last Repair Shop’, which follows four of the workshop’s 12 technicians as they repair the district’s 130,000 instruments. The film was created by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers, a Los Angeles Unified alumnus who discovered an early love for music while playing the piano in school.

The campaign, which has already received support from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, another local nonprofit, will also create a student internship program to train future artisans.

“This store is one of the cornerstones of what makes Los Angeles the creative capital of the world,” Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho said in a statement. “The time has come to call on progressive leaders in this city to ensure that no child in Los Angeles who wants to play an instrument is ever denied that opportunity.”

Thank you for reading. I’ll come back tomorrow. — Soumya

PS Here it is today’s mini crossword.

Maia Coleman and Briana Scalia contributed to California Today. You can reach the team via CAtoday@nytimes.com.

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