The last measurable rain in Nevada County was on August 17th, or two-tenths of an inch. And it came from a series of unusual lightning-sparked systems that triggered huge north state wildfires. But Emily Heller, with the National Weather Service, says light rain is predicted here for Friday afternoon into Saturday morning…

But most of that would be in the higher foothill elevations or in the Sierra. Lloyd says daytime temperatures will also drop 15 to 20 degrees. The official rain year began October first, with that month being completely dry. Lloyd says the last time that happened was in 2002 and, before that, only in 1995 and 1978. A year ago, we had only four-hundredths of an inch. As for a winter outlook, she says this part of the state is always difficult to predict…

Meanwhile, for the just-finished rain year, the Department of Water Resources says a lack of precipitation resulted in a snowpack of just 50-percent of average on April first. That made it the tenth smallest snowpack in California since 1950.