It's a nice sound, remember? Rain coming down in a light well. You were probably smiling a little as you woke up Sunday morning, knowing that you didn't have to go out in it if you didn't want to but knowing that it was a good thing. Did you see this panic-inducing article about the drought last week? Yeah. We need a lot more where that came from.

A UC Berkeley professor is now saying this is a 500-year drought. For the first time in its 54-year history, the State Water Project has completely shut off the tap to 29 local agencies it serves, meaning that no state water is going to 25 million residents and 750,000 acres of farmland (including many in the eastern Bay Area and carrot farmers in Kern County). They will have to seek out water elsewhere.

Fingers crossed that February will be a wet one, but the next week is only going to bring some modest showers. The ground will get another light bath, like it had yesterday, on Thursday if we're to believe Yahoo Weather (Accuweather shows no rain heading here). And then there's a larger storm system heading our way sometime between Saturday and Monday, but it's still too soon to tell quite when it will hit and how hard.

Just know that in addition to quicker showers and "if it's yellow let it mellow," you should be keeping up those rain dances. And learning some new stew recipes for rainy nights.