SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The majority of California is now out of drought thanks to a historic, unrelenting winter.
The latest drought monitor wiped out drought in the Sacramento Valley, although "abnormally dry" conditions still persist. This will likely go away in the coming weeks as the Climate Prediction Center expects drought removal to occur this spring.
The only places where drought remains is in the far northern reaches of the state, including Shasta, Lassen, Modoc, and Siskiyou counties, along with the desert of Southern California. These areas also saw improvement, dropping from severe to moderate drought in certain locations.
The drought score index for California is the lowest it's been since Feb. 2020.
The updated monitor stops collecting data on Tuesday mornings, so the latest atmospheric river to hit the state isn't accounted for here.
The storm tacked on another 1-2" of rain in the valley and 1-3 feet of snow in the Sierra, so more improvement in next week's monitor is likely.
The snowpack is now at 235% of average statewide. The southern Sierra has been particularly hammered with snow this year, having nearly three years worth of snow sitting up there.
California's reservoirs continue to recover from three years of drought and are likely to be full thanks to the spring melt apart from Trinity Lake which is still only at 37% of capacity.
The rest of the western United States continues to see improvement too, especially in the Colorado River basin where drought has persisted for over two decades.
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