Well, a nice little ducking this morning, yeah? Fortunately or unfortunately, it looks like the next few days will be pretty dry.

As noted in these pages previously, what we call the “water year” began in California on Oct. 1. The three years previous to this one have been wet. Very wet!

But we are all old enough to remember the bad days of drought, when the whole state got very parched and where the whole state seemed on the verge of running out of juice. (The whole of the state apart from we lucky duckies served by the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District, that is — we’ve pretty much always had plenty.)

Back in my grandma’s day, she would take bets at her hamburger stand right about now. How much rain are we gonna get this year, fellas? My grandpa would keep track of the totals from the rain gauge in his backyard, and that was the official source of information. Closest guess got a prize — half the take, or maybe just a burger. I can’t remember.

But let’s do a version of that here! (Without the prizes.) How much rain do you forecast in the coming year?