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Bay Area Residents Welcome Rain Amid Drought

In Marin County, the local water district has imposed water conservation efforts since earlier this summer.

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Sunday evening's rain in the Bay Area was a welcomed relief from what has been a very dry year for residents.

The region's reservoirs are in desperate need of more rain.

Marin County was one of the areas that saw rain on Sunday. While it wasn't a hard rain but it was certainly a welcomed sight for residents.

"Some woman just walked into the bathroom there with just bright eyes saying, 'I'm so excited it's raining,'" said San Rafael resident Jon Meyers.

Sunday evening's rain in the Bay Area was a welcomed relief from what has been a very dry year. Sergio Quintana reports.

In Marin County, the local water district has imposed water conservation efforts since earlier this summer.

But the withering reservoirs in the Mount Tamalpais water shed, where most of the county's drinking water comes from, it has been one of the biggest motivators for residents to be wiser with their water use.

While Sunday’s rain will help. Hydrology experts said it's unfortunately just a drop in the bucket as the region has been seeing the annual percentage of rain continue to fall.

That's an amount that's going in the wrong direction.

"We'd have to have about 50 percent more rain than what we've got - and then if we had that for five or six years in a row,” said Dr. Peter Geissler, a hydrology expert.

Meteorologist Kari Hall has a look at the next storm and how much rain we could see in the Microclimate forecast.

Geissler told NBC Bay Area Sunday that most of the rain that does fall drains into the ocean and the bay.

He said capturing about half of that runoff would put the region in a better position to deal with climate change and decreasing annual rains.

In the meantime, Bay Area leaders are continuing to ask residents to conserve as much water as possible and continue to hope for more rain.

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