CALIFORNIA - Despite Punxsutawney Phil's impressively terrible accuracy in predicting the length of the season, February started off looking as though he would be right about an early spring until last night.

After experiencing a string of warm, sunny days, certain California regions were hit with rain and mountain snow last night. The weather was thanks to a storm from the Pacific that spread considerably more precipitation further south than those the month has seen thus far.

"While this will not be the long-feared or much-anticipated blockbuster storm for California, it will bring drenching rain and heavy mountain snow to central and northern areas with some rain reaching into Southern California," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said in a weather report.

The “blockbuster” refers to meteorologists’ promises that this month would see the peak of the El Niño storms, as we reported previously. Instead, we have seen almost two dry weeks along the state except for parts of the coast. As for southern California, AccuWeather reports this will be the first time in the month that the Los Angeles area will have seen rain.

"Heavy snow will fall across the Sierra Nevada with a foot or more of snow possible," Brett Rathbun, another AccuWeather Meteorologist, stated, adding that travel would be dangerous through Donner Pass into today.

The rainfall began lightly in central and northern California yesterday afternoon, intensifying later in the evening, while southern California saw intermittent rains last night.

Accuweather reports that those showers will continue through today, followed by cooler, drier weather in the southern part of the state this weekend. Meanwhile, in the north, one more dose of rain and mountain snow is expected to touch later tomorrow before the storm has waned.

AndNowUKnow will continue to follow all weather patterns as the western states continue to combat the record drought.