SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY, Calif. (KTXL) — Growers in San Joaquin County are embracing the wet weather this week.

James Chinchiolo owns Lodi Blooms, a self-pick cherry farm.

“We want the rain in this time of year,” he told FOX40 Monday.

Chinchiolo said the rain is wanted as his farm gears up for the upcoming cherry season.  

“When Mother Nature provides us rain, it’s free. We don’t need to pay to pump it from depth or depressurize it from surface water. So, it’s a joy. I mean it’s great to have Mother Nature provide the moisture we need for these trees to keep them nice and healthy,” Chinchiolo explained.

“In about two weeks, I would say we’re really going to ask Mother Nature to turn off the spigot and allow for the cherries to mature without any risk of cracking from rain,” Chinchiolo added. “The highest amount of risk is right before we’re about to pick.”

Other growers agree that the recent rain is welcome but precipitation at the wrong time could cause problems. 

“We’d like rain most anytime of the year except during harvest,” said Bruce Blodgette, the executive director of the San Joaquin County Farm Bureau.  

But Blodgette said rainfall in the region is needed.

“A lot more storms like this would be good, actually,” Blodgette said. “We need a lot more rain, and it just doesn’t seem to be that much in the forecast.”

FOX40 meteorologists said the rain Sunday and throughout Monday was the strongest rainstorm the region has seen since December 2021. 

Blodgette said, in terms of impacting overall drought conditions, the rain is a drop in the bucket.

“Doesn’t even touch it, really, just doesn’t even touch it. We need a lot of snowpack, we need a lot of rainfall, we need to refill reservoirs, I mean that’s the problem, our reservoirs do not have the water in them right now that we need to get through the year,” Blodgette explained.