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11 percent of California is still in drought, but history shows that could always change | GEEK LAB

California has the highest variability in the country with year-to-year rain and snow. The Drought Monitor shows how quickly the state can go from one extreme to the next.

The U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) is released weekly to indicate what areas throughout the United States are experiencing some level of the five-category drought.

The USDM levels range from the lower end of "abnormally dry" shown in yellow to the highest level of drought, "exceptional drought" shown in maroon.

The abundant rain and snow in the 2018-19 water year have been helpful in bringing most of California out of any drought status. Currently, only 11 percent of the state remains in drought.

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The state can easily slip back into drought though, due to the high range of variability of precipitation. California has the highest range in the United States of year-to-year rain and snow. This basically means the state can see large swings from dry to wet years.

This can be visually displayed when looking at the time series of drought periods since 2000. California has gone through three waves of droughts. The most serious from 2012 to 2017. It was during this time the state experienced some of the biggest water shortages and driest months on record.

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