By Jim Purpura. Posted February 20, 2012, 10:54 AM.

Although Sunday's drizzle and low clouds were encouraging signs, they were only a brief tease for Southern California in what has been a dry winter.

None of WeatherCurrents' 17 stations reported measurable rainfall (0.01 inch or more).

So how does the rest of February look for rain? If the long range computer forecast models are correct, we won't see more than a bit of drizzle through the end of the month. After a quick moving system brings cool weather and high clouds today, Southern California remains in a see-saw battle between warm high pressure over the Pacific and a series of storm system that continue to miss us to the north. So it doesn't look like we can expect any rain of significance through the end of the month.

And the March outlook doesn't hold much hope for a "March Miracle" - a prolonged period of heavy rainfall that would get our meager totals back to normal. The Climate Prediction Center outlook for the month calls for near normal temperatures, but high chances that the month will be below normal in precipitation.

Precipitation outlook for March (courtesy of NOAA Climate Prediction Center)