Nearly Half Of California Out Of Drought Following Record Snow—But Years-Long Dry Spell Isn’t Over Yet

Topline

Record snowfall in the Sierra Nevadas and floods in the San Francisco Bay Area have pulled nearly half of California out of a years-long drought, according to new data released Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor, though experts caution the state’s drought is not over yet—and might never be.

Nearly half of California is out of drought, following record snowfall and a series of storms.

Key Facts

Nearly all of California’s Central Valley, as well as coastal northern and central California and the majority of the San Francisco Bay Area have emerged from drought, according to a Drought Monitor map.

Parts of northern California in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevadas and the Los Angeles and San Diego area, which had been in a state of “severe” drought three months ago, have been downgraded to “abnormally dry” conditions, leaving the state’s northeast corner and the Mojave Desert as the last two vestiges of a “severe” drought.

California has been slowly recovering from a three-year drought since December, when the entire state was in a drought, with more than 45% facing “severe” conditions, 28% in “extreme” conditions and 7% in “exceptional” conditions at the time.

Surprising Fact

Nearly 44.7% of the state had been removed from a drought as of Tuesday, while less than 9% was in a severe drought. The last time that much of the state had been out of drought conditions was February 2020. The entire state of California faced drought conditions between April 2021 and December 2022, according to data from the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Big Number

17.3 million. That’s how many California residents live in areas still affected by the drought, according to the Drought Monitor. Nearly 20 million residents live in areas out of drought.

Key Background

Starting with a New Year’s Eve storm that caused widespread flooding in the San Francisco Bay area, California has been hammered by what meteorologists have dubbed a “relentless parade of cyclones,” bringing record rainfall to both northern and southern California, and causing power outages, poor travel conditions, downed trees and mudslides. The majority of the storms formed as long, narrow bands of heavy rain called “atmospheric rivers” which scientists say can carry as much water vapor as the average amount of water flowing at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The Sierra Nevada mountains, meanwhile, have received more than 55 feet of snow since October 1, according to the University of California, Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab, causing avalanches and nearly burying buildings in higher elevations. The snow lab has now received roughly 220% of the average snowfall it typically receives.

Contra

Despite the heavy snowfall and recent flooding, scientists still believe the state’s dry conditions are far from over. Central Sierra Snow Lab scientist Andrew Schwartz told CNN earlier this month a “prolonged dry and warm period” could leave the state in an unfavorable position in the drier months in the spring and summer. Desert Research Institute scientist Dan McEvoy said the recent precipitation “has made a big dent in improving the drought and potentially eliminating the water shortage problems,” but that the full extent of the drought remains to be seen.

News Peg

Officials in southern California on Wednesday lifted emergency water restrictions that had been imposed last year on roughly 7 million residents, following improvements in water levels in the state’s water sources, though officials warned “significant challenges remain” with the state’s other source of water, the Colorado River. California had been a holdout earlier this year when the six other southwest states that rely on the Colorado River drafted a plan to reduce water consumption from the river in response to the Biden Administration’s announcement last August that those states would need to reduce water usage from the river as the region’s two biggest aquifers—Lake Mead and Lake Powell—hit record low water levels.