Something ominous just hit California: rain .

The life-giving water that normally hydrates people and crops is bringing an aura of dread this autumn, thanks to the strongest El Niño ever recorded . While the phenomenon causes severe drought and heat in many parts of the world, historically it’s brought extraordinary rainfall to the Golden State. The monstrous El Niño of 1997 and 1998, for instance, caused widespread flooding and debris flows (made not just of water and dirt, but big chunks of rock), destroying property and killing residents .

The state can’t stop rain from falling, so in the last few decades it has been renegotiating its relationship with precipitation. As climate change makes California whiplash from years of intense drought to years of intense rain , water agencies have been capturing as much H2O as they can to reduce reliance on using canals to bring it in from afar.…