Rain brings relief from drought

Kim Harris

Managing Editor

Despite the threat of La Niña, which usually results in a drier-than-average winter for those in the southwest lasting into February, an abundance of winter storms has brought some much-needed drought relief into the region, water officials said recently.

"We could not have asked for a better December in terms of Sierra snow and rain," Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, said Thursday, Dec. 30.

The Department of Water Resources conducted the first snow survey of the season at Phillips Station, Thursday. Early winter storms in Decem...