I believe this is to be a colder winter this winter and given the fact we had a very cool summer here in California, with Sea temps well below normal I think this lends to support my theory.
If the storms continue from the north which are generally colder storms in general. This will bring lower amount of rain fall to the lower elevations because the storms can't pick up large amounts of moister from the ocean. Given this, storms from the north have a showery nature to many of the storms coming from the north and not big rain makers. So if the storms continue to come from the north and not off the Pacific Ocean look for lower rain fall.
Weather man Mike P. maybe able to shed more light on the winter forecast better then I. As this is a hobby for me.
So if this is the case for this winter, there will be little need to worry about any wash outs on the NWP line.