Will the wet start to the rainy season put dent in drought?

October was wet, November dry. And December? The soft but steady rains this weekend were enough to push the Sacramento region to 155 percent of normal precipitation for the season.

And there's more to come. After a break between storms, wet weather is expected to return Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. The wet system should linger over the region through Thursday, dropping two to three inches of rain in Sacramento and five to eight inches of rain and snow in the Sierra.

So what does that mean for California's drought, now entering a sixth year? While Northern California has seen a wet start to winter, the situation is more complicated across the state. Central and Southern California continue to experience unusually dry conditions. And even in the north state, it's not clear how the rest of the rainy season will shape up.

“There isn't a strong indicator that could tell us if we're going to have” high levels of precipitation from now through February, said NWS meteorologist Idamis Del Valle.

Still, the early-season rains are making a dent. A year ago, the U.S. Drought Monitor listed all four counties in the Sacramento region as being in “exceptional drought,” the worst classification. This year, the drought monitor's weekly report shows conditions in Sacramento and Yolo counties have been upgraded two categories to “severe drought,” while El Dorado County is another step up in “moderate drought,” and parts of Placer are listed as just “abnormally dry” — the least severe category.

Most of the state's central and southern reaches, meanwhile, are still gripped in “extreme” to “exceptional” drought, according to the map, which is produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Nebraska.

“It definitely helps having a good water year, but we're still in a drought and it took us a few years to get to this point, so it will be a long recovery,” Del Valle said.