Reuters: Fall storms that brought rain and snow to parts of California have made a small but measurable dent in the state's four-year drought, experts said. The storms dumped up to 3.5 inches of snow on the parched Sierra Nevada earlier this week and led the Mammoth Mountain ski resort to open two lifts at a time when most other ski areas are closed. The precipitation has put the state ahead of the normal rainfall for the season and nudged a few areas out of the worst drought designation, scientists at...