(Wine-Searcher) - California receives a long-awaited soaking, but meteorologists warn that the drought hasn't broken yet.

Rain at last! Much of California was drenched by a major storm this week. While it's way too soon to say it will have any impact on the drought, the horizon looks a little brighter or, should we say, wetter.

The best news is that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Prediction Center announced Sunday that there's a 40 percent chance that California will see above-average rainfall in December. After three years of drought, above-average rainfall would be a godsend.

"There has been a little shift in the storm track over the Pacific in the last few weeks," climatologist Greg Jones told Wine Searcher. "This shift looks more 'normal' for Pacific storms dipping down into California."

In other words, "normal" for pre-drought conditions. One of the reasons California is so great for wine grapes is that it normally gets most of its rain in the winter, and residents were reminded of that Tuesday. St. Helena got two inches of rain; parched Paso Robles got 0.76 inches. By Wednesday, parts of Monterey County had received 6 inches and San Francisco Airport had seen more rain in one week than in the whole of 2013. It's easy to imagine farmers holding their arms out to greet the downpour like Marco Scutaro in the 2012 baseball playoffs.

The soaking was enough for the California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) to double the amount of water it forecasts being able to deliver to local agencies in 2015 – although that doubling is only from 5 percent of the water they requested to 10 percent. The San Joaquin Valley, site of most of the grapes that go into wines bearing the basic California appellation, relies heavily on state-provided water.

"We're always very conservative in our estimates," CDWR spokesman Ted Thomas told Wine Searcher. "We're optimistic, but long-range forecasts are uncertain."