Daniel Swain in Laredo Morning Times: Could a Miracle March save us? Here’s how much rain San Francisco needs to make up for the deficit

Most of Northern California is now running below 50% of average precipitation since the start of the rainy season on Oct. 1. In some places, this represents a cumulative deficit of 15 to 20 inches, or even more, of missing rainfall, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. “At this point, even the wettest March on record would not be enough to erase a deficit of that magnitude, although a wet March would certainly have the potential to temporarily blunt drought-related impacts,” Swain wrote in an email.