Even after weeks of incessant and flooding rain, the historic drought gripping California has barely begun to recede.
(Bloomberg) — Even after weeks of incessant and flooding rain, the historic drought gripping California has barely begun to recede.
Just over 95% of the state remains in drought, down from about 98% the week before, according to government figures released Thursday.
The report from the US Drought Monitor is the first quantifiable glimpse into how the parade of storms that have killed at least 17 people and triggered widespread flooding and evacuations have impacted the state’s worst drought in a millennia. The results are devastatingly clear: California still needs far more rain and snow to make up for years of desiccation that have fueled brutal wildfires, bedeviled farmers and imperiled drinking water supplies.
“The precipitation has provided a generous boost to reservoir stores, but most are still below the long-term average for this time of year,” Richard Tinker of the US Climate Prediction Center wrote in the report.
Still, there was some promising news in the figures. The amount of land affected by extreme drought, one of the worst categories, fell to less than 1%, down from 27.1% a week ago, according to the report covering conditions through Jan. 10.
Read More: California Floods Threaten to Turn Pebble Beach Into an Island
The lack of any measurable rain in the past three years in California has hurt crops across the Central Valley, one of the world’s largest agriculture economies, put large cities under stress, threatened water supplies for many smaller communities and contributed to some of the largest and deadliest wildfires in state history.
While the recent snow and rain certainly has helped the situation, it won’t be until April 1 when state officials get a clear handle on how much conditions have improved.
What worries water managers in California and across the West is that heavy snow will sometime melt, soaking into the ground or running off, before it can be captured by reservoirs. In addition, groundwater supplies in California have been so depleted that in many areas underground aquifers have collapsed and may not be able to be refilled again even if there is plentiful rain.
California’s rains have not translated to the rest of the US where about 45% of the 48 contiguous states are in some form of drought.
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