Meteorologists are being cautiously optimistic that February will bring a return of a wet-weather pattern for the Bay Area, helping to pull us further out of the drought and hopefully finish the winter with an average level of rainfall.

This has been a very dry and warm January by all accounts. But the records show us that it's actually not the driest January in recent years — the mid-drought January of 2015 saw zero rain fall in San Francisco, and and the previous two Januarys weren't so great either with just 0.49 inches in Jan. 2013, and 0.06 inches in January 2014. We've seen 0.61 inches fall in the city this new year so far, mostly in the first days of the year, and there's a tiny chance there will be some more rain coming by the 31st.

As National Weather Service meteorologist Brooke Vingaman tells the Chronicle today, the North Bay might see rain before the month is out, but it's "not a slam dunk" at this point.

ABC 7's Drew Tuma is predicting possible light showers hitting Sunday night, January 30, and then more rain possible Monday the 31st, Tuesday the 1st, and Wednesday the 2nd.

Vingaman confirms that a wet pattern looks to be on the horizon for next week, and she tells the Chronicle, "that is a good sign that it’s putting us back on track to hopefully stay at least near average precipitation for the winter season."

Because this is a La Nina winter, it remains uncertain whether the Bay Area will fall into a drier-than-average pattern that typically afflicts SoCal and the Southwest in a La Nina year, or the wetter-than-average pattern that typically hits the Northwest — we are in the middle of the two, and if December was any indicator, we're getting a lot of wetness.

Hopefully that pattern continues after these dry couple of weeks, and meteorologists have said that California won't be exiting the drought this season unless those atmospheric rivers line up one after another and truly pummel us. But, at least, the Sierra snowpack is already deep, and it will hopefully be getting deeper.

Tuma's 10-day forecast gives San Francisco 0.77 inches of rain in the near future.

In the meantime, enjoy another sunny and balmy week. It'll be gray again soon enough.

Photo: Chris LaBasco/GettyImages