Several moisture-rich storms are to bring significant precipitation to the West in a gradual step toward easing historic drought conditions. Heavy rain could nourish parched soils, and feet of snowfall will substantially boost a paltry mountain snowpack.

Over the next week, three storms should bring substantial precipitation to California and then head east into the Rockies. The first storm is arriving Thursday, and the most intense of the three is anticipated between late Saturday and early next week. The third storm in the series is expected late next week, but it may be more modest.

The moisture cannot arrive too soon. California is nearing its 20th consecutive month of drought, a grim benchmark in a decades-long dry spell. The state’s plight is representative of the challenging water situation facing much of the Western United States, highlighted by drought-related disasters over the past two years including extreme heat, wildfires and water shortages.

(U.S. Drought Monitor)

Even an above-average summer monsoon in the Southwest and a record-setting October rainstorm in California were not enough to reduce the drought’s expansive domain meaningfully. Nearly half of the West remains in severe to exceptional drought.

The replenishment of a much-depleted snowpack in the West is a crucial element in reducing the drought. Many regional reservoirs rely on snowpack and have been hurt by its scarcity in recent years. So far this season, snowpack is below normal almost everywhere in the West, but the coming trio of storms has the potential to restore some of it.

The drought will not be erased by one storm or even a succession of storms, but predicted precipitation through the middle of the month almost certainly will help incrementally notch down its magnitude and reach.