California as a whole seems set for a much-needed reprieve from the rain — with drier weather settling across the state for the next week or so after this last storm exits.

"We're in a much drier pattern right now. The weather pattern has shifted, and all those atmospheric river storms are no longer pointing at Southern California," Sweet said.

A less-saturated forecast will likely be welcome news in weather-walloped parts of the state still trying to dig out from the destruction wrought by the spate of heavy storms.

Mudslides in Niles Canyon have snarled operations on the Altamont Corridor Express — a commuter rail service that runs from Stockton to San Jose. One such slide blocked the railroad tracks Tuesday morning, prompting officials to evacuate 225 people, according to the Alameda County Fire Department.

And Santa Barbara County officials this week announced that Goleta Beach Park would be closed because of "emergency beach nourishment operations," which include moving sediment from basins below the burn areas of the Cave and Thomas fires to the beach.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, said that precipitation over the next two-plus weeks "is likely to be below average for most/all" of California.

"This will give the state a needed opportunity to dry out, for rivers to recede, and for folks in the mountains to dig out from feet of snow," he wrote Tuesday on Twitter.

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