![]() This is especially the case when compared to conditions late last fall, when damaging wildfires struck the region. Southern Drought Also Saw Improvementĭrought conditions in the Southeast have also undergone a significant reduction thanks to another recent soaking in late January. The state of California is still officially in drought, but the San Diego County Water Authority declared drought conditions have ended in San Diego county. Water supply comes from groundwater in the central foothills on the east side of the San Joaquin Valley where residents of Tuolumne County with dry wells are still receiving water that is trucked in. Drought Monitor said that despite improvements, the longer term impacts of the drought are still being observed in relation to groundwater supplies. Given that this has been a multi-year dry spell, more precipitation is still needed to completely eliminate drought conditions from the southern half of California. The statewide snowpack is 174 percent to normal for February 1, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The snowpack is also very important to consider and there is good news on this front as well. (MORE: 'Januburied' in the Sierra Nevada) Exceptional drought, the worst category, is absent in the state for the first time since January 21, 2014. That is the lowest areal coverage of the state in drought since April 2013, nearly four years ago. Only 50.8 percent of California, all south of Interstate 80, remains in various degrees of drought, ranging from moderate and severe to a small area categorized as extreme, according to the latest Drought Monitor released February 2. ![]() ![]() This rainfall was badly needed in both California and the South, but in some locations, the rain came with deadly flooding and severe thunderstorms. Drought Monitor released January 26 revealed the Lower 48 has no area in exceptional drought, the worst category possible, for the first time since April 4, 2011. Several rounds of heavy rain and snow have brought a major reduction to the drought in Southern California, while a stormy pattern also brought beneficial rain to areas of the South. ![]() The Climate Prediction Center addressed that doubt but not with much certainty.Two of the nation's worst drought areas saw significant improvement in January thanks to several rounds of quenching precipitation in recent weeks. "The thinking that tends to associate wet winters with El Niños is based on signals that were developed in the 20th century, and in the 21st century those signals have been in doubt." "I don’t think that the wet winter that we’re having now can be clearly attributed to a weak El Niño," he said. Barbara Bloom was born in Los Angeles, California in 1951 and graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in 1972. But further south, in the Tulare Basin, the index measured 19.8 inches for the season so far, more than all of last year (17.9 inches) and 119 percent of average for mid-February, he said.Īlexander Gershunov, research meteorologist at the the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, called the evidence for a storm-influencing El Niño this season "very borderline." measured fewer than 5 inches of rain all of last season, she said.Ĭhris Orrock, spokesman for the California Department of Water Resources, said the state's precipitation index for the northern Sierra mountains was 33.3 inches, compared to the annual average of 51.8. has recorded 13.31 inches and could surpass the seasonal average in coming days, NWS meteorologist Kristen Stewart said.ĭowntown L.A. Average seasonal rainfall for Los Angeles is more than 14 inches.
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