Boosting what has been a mediocre start so far to the winter season, a storm from the Pacific Northwest is expected to bring widespread rain to the Bay Area early Thursday and blanket the Sierra Nevada with up to 3 feet of new snow. …  The storm system would be the first significant rain or snow in Northern California in more than three weeks, and comes as the state is entering its fourth year of drought. A hoped-for storm fizzled last weekend, but this one is on track, forecasters say….California desperately needs a sustained pattern of rain and snow this winter. The last three years have been the driest three-year period statewide since records began in the 1800s.

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• Union Democrat: Storms expected to bring rain, snow to the Mother Lode starting Wednesday