This winter has been one of constant rain and snowfall in Northern California.
However, the rainfall has gone towards a worthy cause. Drought conditions in the state have improved drastically. Much of the state of California is no longer in a drought. In fact, the last time we were in this position was March 2011.
Per the U. S. Drought Monitor, “Outside of a few locales in the southern San Joaquin Valley and in the far north, almost all of California is now reporting precipitation surpluses for the water year. To further illustrate, California’s disappearing Moderate Drought (D1) was limited to small portions in the far north, while Abnormal Dryness (D0) was confined to relatively small sections in northern and southern portions of the state.”
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Per the U. S. Drought Monitor, “Outside of a few locales in the southern San Joaquin Valley and in the far north, almost all of California is now reporting precipitation surpluses for the water year. To further illustrate, California’s disappearing Moderate Drought (D1) was limited to small portions in the far north, while Abnormal Dryness (D0) was confined to relatively small sections in northern and southern portions of the state.”
As of March 5, 2019, seen on the right in the slider below, only 11 percent of the state is currently in some form of a drought. The slider below shows that current conditions are drastically different from September 2014, seen on the left in the slider below. This illustrates how California is a state of extremes. It has the highest variability in the country with year-to-year precipitation (Dettinger et al. 2011).
Just take a look at the amount of red in the Sept. 2 image. At that time, 82 percent of the state was in an Extreme (D3) to Exceptional (D4) Drought.
Drought Intensity Explained:
D4 - Exceptional Drought, burgundy
D3 - Extreme Drought, red
D2 - Severe Drought, orange
D1 - Moderate Drought, tan
While right now only 11 percent of the state remains is in a drought, we could easily slip back into drought due to the high range of variability of precipitation.
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.
