It’s official: California is 100% drought-free.
For the first time since 2011, the state shows no areas suffering from prolonged drought and illustrates almost entirely normal conditions, according to a map released Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Former Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order in 2017 that lifted the drought emergency in most of the state, leaving some breathing a sigh of relief.
But he cautioned Californians to keep saving water as some parts of the state was still suffering from extreme drought. Now, two years later, that deficit seems to have been erased, thanks to an exceptionally wet winter.
“The reservoirs are full, lakes are full, the streams are flowing, there’s tons of snow,” said Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist with the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “All the drought is officially gone.”
The Drought Monitor, which collects data from scientists from the National Drought Mitigation Center, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and dozens of weather agencies, last showed a drought map that was clear in December 2011.
In updating the map, scientists consult with hydrologists, water managers, meteorologists, and other experts to determine the amount of water in the state’s reservoirs, the snowpack level, and other key measurements. With the wet winter streak going strong, their reports have been good.
In January, storms filled up many of the state’s water reserves almost to capacity and added about 580 billion gallons of water to reservoirs across the state. That month, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, a major source of California’s water supply, doubled — and then doubled again in February.
“California has been getting a tremendous amount of rain, storms, and snow,” Blunden said. “It’s just been extremely wet and it’s been so wet … that we’ve been able to alleviate drought across the state.”
A year ago, just 11% of the state was experiencing normal conditions while 88.9% of the state was “abnormally dry,” according to the drought report. Some parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties were still colored dark red, meaning they were experiencing “extreme drought.”
Read more at LA Times
Other than the standard response of liberals to blame everything bad on climate change, we must remember that California is suffering from mistakes made near the beginning of the last century. In southern California they created an extended urban area of millions in the middle of the desert. This requires a great deal of water to come from some where else. The mistakes continue today. They welcome illegal aliens. The expanded population needs more water.
Applying the scientific logic to the earth has a fever religion ….
Governor Brown resigns and the drought is over , therefore Governor Brown caused the drought . Thank god he is gone .
Excellent point Amber.
Does this mean Brown lit his hair on fire for nothing ?
Conclusion … global warming causes rain ,storms and snow .
The horror .
If only the Democrats running the state (into the ground) were to build additional water storage when they do get an incredible snow season like this year to capture that runoff instead of letting it flow into the ocean for the next dry year(s). But no, they do not see past their noses and will blame the next drought season on “climate change”.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide continues to increase. Where are the Alarmists’ retractions? The end of snow? Who said that?
Californians, enjoy the change of scenery.
No, Jerry… it’s about a 7-10-year wet-dry-wet-dry CYCLE, you jerk, AND furthermore… https://climatechangedispatch.com/solar-impact-climate-study/?fbclid=IwAR0AI10VfUpOg4e4OFwVnIEu0c1U2q-2WJPaiofVcRkAYvyfuU5WfeGzoFQ