The parched crops and painfully dry lawns throughout Turlock could finally get a taste of rain on Wednesday night and Thursday.
The National Weather Service is predicting a 40 percent chance of rain Wednesday night, and a 50 percent chance of rain throughout Thursday and into early Friday morning.
More optimistic predictions come from the websites AccuWeather.com, predicting .18 inches of rain Wednesday night, and WUnderground.com, predicting an 80 percent chance of rain on Thursday.
While the projected rainfall is by no means drought-ending, it is better than nothing. The Turlock Irrigation District reported that the past three years have been the driest three-year period since record keeping began in 1897.
On Jan. 17, California Governor Jerry Brown declared a statewide drought emergency and asked Californians to voluntarily reduce water consumption by 20 percent.
The California Department of Water Resources reports that the central Sierra snowpack is at 16 percent of normal, and that northern Sierra snowpack is at 8 percent.
