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ByPaulRogers BayAreaNewsGroup Lots of issues divide Southern and Northern California: The Dodgers vs. the Giants. Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley. South- ern Californians say "the" before naming a freeway; northerners don't. Now, after this past we ekend's soa k i n g storms, there's a new difference emerging: the drought. As the state faces a possible fourth year of drought, Northern Cal- ifornia is enjoying a healthy wet winter so far, with rainfall levels at 100 percent of their his- toric average or above in nearly every city, and reservoirs, while still not back to normal, steadily filling. But rainfall totals in the south are anemic, and falling further be- hind as each major storm only drenches the north- ern part of the state, leav- ing the south dry. If the trend continues, this summer there may be two droughts in Califor- nia: a mild one in the north that most residents barely notice, and a far more se- vere one in the more pop- ulated southern half of the state with more fire risk, smog, desperate ground- water pumping and more strict water rationing. "We definitely want to see more rain down here. We are getting behind," said Eric Boldt, a meteo- rologist with the National Weather Service in Los An- geles. How big is the rain gap? Up to 12 inches of rain fell in some remote North- ern California areas over the weekend, with most Bay Area and Northern California cities receiving 1 to 3 inches from Friday to Monday. But over the same time, Los Angeles received just 0.02 of an inch, and Riv- erside and San Diego got none. In an average year, many Bay Area cities and LA ba- sin cities receive about the same amount of rain. San Jose averages 14.9 inches in a normal year, the same as Los Angeles. This year, however, since Oct. 1, San Jose has received 11.58 inches — 134 percent of normal for early February — while LA has received only half as much, 5.72 inches — good for just 70 percent of normal. Although there are a few exceptions, most ar- eas south of Fresno are similarly dry. Irvine is at 61 percent of normal rain- fall while San Francisco is at 109 percent. River- side is at 60 percent, while Oakland is at 107 percent. Palm Springs is at 36 per- cent, while Sacramento is at 120 percent. "There is a big differ- ence," said Jay Lund, a pro- fessor of civil and environ- mental engineering at UC Davis. "Some people in Southern California may be feeling this year like na- ture doesn't like Southern California." The reason is largely meteorological luck, say experts. Two of the biggest storms that have ham- mered Northern California were both "atmospheric rivers." Those are the so- called "Pineapple Express" storms that race in from the tropics. Although they provide up to half of Cali- fornia's rainfall every year, they also tend to be nar- row, only a few hundred miles wide. As a result, the places that are in the bull's eye where the "express" comes ashore get absolutely del- uged. Places a few hun- dred miles away get noth- ing. "With this system we had an atmospheric river coming from Hawaii," said Holly Osborne, a meteo- rologist with the National Weather Service in Sacra- mento. "Basically the moisture plume hit around the Or- egon-California border, so if you were in the southern part of the state, you didn't see much at all." Added to that, the Pa- cific Ocean remains un- usually warm, which led scientists last year to raise the probability for El Niño conditions. But those con- ditions, which historically have meant higher chances of a wet winter for South- ern California than North- ern California, have failed to materialize because the ocean conditions haven't triggered atmospheric changes needed for an El Niño. "We never really got it," said Boldt. "Now it's Feb- ruary. It's late." CALIFORNIA DROUGHT Northern California getting much more rain than Southern By Tracy Seipel San Jose Mercury News Julie Moreno felt lucky to be among more than 2.7 million previously un- insured Californians to be added to Medi-Cal, the state's health care program for the poor. Until she needed cataract surgery. For three months af- ter her November 2013 di- agnosis, the 49-year-old Mountain View resident said, she tried to get an ap- pointment, but each time she called, no slots were available. Desperate and worried, she finally bor- rowed $14,000 from her boyfriend's mother to have the procedure done else- where last February. One year on the explo- sive, health law-induced growth of Medi-Cal, it ap- pears one of the most alarm- ing predictions of critics is coming true: The supply of doctors hasn't kept up with demand. One recent study suggests the number of primary care doctors in California per Medi-Cal pa- tient is woefully below fed- eral guidelines. "If you're pregnant, you get help," Moreno said. "But if you're 49 and not preg- nant, you have to wait for everything." In fact, seven months af- ter Moreno's surgery, her original surgeon's office called just to say they still couldn't fit her in. At least 1.2 million Cali- fornians have signed up for a private insurance plan since enrollment began in October 2013 under the Af- fordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. But it's Medi-Cal that has wit- nessed the largest growth — 2.7 million since the con- troversial law opened the program up to many more recipients in January 2014. By mid-2016, more than 12.2 million people — nearly a third of all Californians — will be on Medi-Cal, state health officials say. Those officials continue to insist that the current delays to see a doctor and crowded emergency rooms are all part of to-be-ex- pected growing pains. But many experts say the prob- lems are so widespread they shouldn't be ignored. "California did a good job of getting people signed up, but they basically stuck their heads in the sand and assumed that Califor- nia physicians would just jump right on board and want to take more Medi- Cal patients," said Dr. Del Morris, president of the Cal- ifornia Academy of Family Physicians, which repre- sents many of the first-line doctors who treat Medi-Cal patients. "It's unacceptable to say, 'We are not ready for you yet, you'll just have to suffer with your disease.'" Morris and other experts say the situation is about to get worse, in part because of Medi-Cal's health care re- imbursement rates. For years, the rates paid by Medi-Cal — called Med- icaid in the rest of the coun- try — have been among the nation's lowest. A provi- sion of Obamacare hiked the rates for primary care doctors to the substan- tially higher Medicare rates for two years, but those in- creases ended on Dec. 31. A second blow came last month when the state cut the Medi-Cal reimburse- ment rate by another 10 per- cent, a reduction approved by California lawmakers in 2011 but delayed in a court battle that doctors ulti- mately lost. Even before the latest cuts, Medi-Cal doctors — particularly specialists — in California's rural areas often seemed nearly im- possible to find. And the shortage of Medi-Cal phy- sicians appears to be caus- ing spikes in the number of Medi-Cal patients being treated in hospital emer- gency rooms around the state. Data from the Of- fice of Statewide Health Planning and Develop- ment show that in the first three quarters of 2014, "treat and release" visits to emergency rooms by Medi-Cal patients jumped 30 percent from the same period the year before. AFFORDABLE CARE ACT Me di -C al a w ai ti ng g am e for many poor Californians By David Pitt The Associated Press DES MOINES, IOWA Net in- come for farmers is ex- pected to fall by nearly 32 percent this year as corn and soybean prices remain low and expenses creep higher, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a re- port Tuesday. While some farmers rent- ing land at higher prices will find it an unprofitable year, the statistics are not as dire as they may sound for farmers in general, since just two years ago income was at a record high, farm economists said. "It's neither happy times nor is the sky fall- ing in terms of agricul- ture incomes," said Scott Irwin, an agricultural economist at the Univer- sity of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. The Agriculture De- partment estimates would mean farmers in the United States would see income fall for a second year in a row. It was down 16 percent from 2013 to 2014. The re- port forecasts net income at $73.6 billion in 2015, down from $108 billion in 2014. It was at a record $129 billion in 2013. Crop receipts are ex- pected to fall nearly 8 per- cent, driven by a dramatic fall in grain prices. Corn, for example, was at a record high, exceeding $8 a bushel in the summer of 2012, but is trading under $4 now. Soybeans had a similar de- cline. Livestock prices gen- erally have been high, deliv- ering exceptional profits — particularly for hog farmers — but a pig virus cut herds last year and cattle herds haven't yet fully recovered from drought years when numbers declined. Even as income falls, ex- penses for things like fertil- izer and seed are rising by one-half of a percent, the USDA said. "There will be some farmers that do face finan- cial stress, that's for sure, but there's also going to be a tremendous amount of farm payments going out," said Bruce Babcock, professor of economics at Iowa State University. The USDA reports show government programs that pay farmers when commod- ity prices are low will rise 15 percent this year. "It's making it a tight squeeze for the grain farmer," said Jerry Main, 76, who plants corn and soybeans on just under 500 acres in the southeast part of the state. "There's a lot of negotiating going on be- tween tenants and land- lords trying to get cash rents reduced. I'm not hear- ing landlords are giving too much yet." He said farmers and landowners realize another drought or severe weather in the corn belt could push grain prices higher and change things dramati- cally. Farmers who own land with a low cost of produc- tion will likely still make a profit, while those who rent land at higher prices will struggle. Those with high costs will likely try to cut house- hold expenses, will avoid making any large purchases for equipment and will try to cut costs for fertilizer and other inputs. Another USDA report re- leased Tuesday shows Cal- ifornia remains the top state in gross farm receipts with $47.78 billion, about 10 percent of the national re- ceipts. 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