After an exceptionally dry January, February will feature significantly more rain chances for much of California, at least for the first part of the month. Northern California, including the Bay Area,

The statewide Sierra Nevada snowpack, which provides nearly one-third of California’s water supply, began the year in good shape, at 108% of normal. But as anyone who went skiing or did yardwork over the past month knows,

California’s snowpack is “behind the 8-ball” but water officials are hopeful that a pair of storms sweeping through Northern California starting Friday will boost storage in the Sierra Nevada, which dipped well below average following a significantly dry January.

The California Department of Water Resources conducted the second snow survey of the season in the Northern Sierra Nevada mountains on Friday. The manual survey at