This months powerful storms have earned California the not-so-trivial distinction of being drought-free across nearly half the state.
The U.S. governments Drought Monitor on Thursday classified 49 percent of California as being without drought conditions, an astonishing recovery from a year ago when just 5 percent of the state was considered removed from peril. Its the most area marked free of drought since April 2013.
All of the Bay Area, except for a tiny portion of Santa Clara County, was drought-free, according to the federal analysis, as was the northern half of the state, from San Francisco to the Oregon border.
The improving water picture comes amid a January that is closing in on rain and snow records across the state. In the Northern Sierra, where precipitation is most vital for filling reservoirs, more rain has already fallen this winter than during an entire average year, while snowpack across the mountains was an impressive 189 percent of average on Thursday.
San Francisco has seen 18.45 inches of rain since Oct. 1, nearly 150 percent of average for the period.
While the situation in the north has dramatically turned around, in part because last winters weather also provided relief, half of California continues to wrestle with at least some stage of drought.
The Santa Barbara area, where reservoirs have shown an uncanny inability to fill, is in the worst shape, according to the Drought Monitor. Other parts of the southern coast and San Joaquin Valley also remain dry.
For the first time since January 2014, however, none of California was classified in the Drought Monitors most severe category of Exceptional Drought.
State water managers have welcomed the improved conditions but arent yet claiming victory. The wet weather could take a turn for the worse, and the future will undoubtedly bring other dry periods, they say.
Additionally, a lot more rain is needed to fill Californias over-pumped aquifers and restore the health of its ecosystems, including Sierra Nevada forests, which have seen an unparalleled tree die-off.
