A month of rain—and snow—has cleared away drought conditions from nearly all of Los Angeles County, according to report released Thursday by the National Drought Mitigation Center.
A small swath of northeastern Los Angeles County remains “abnormally dry,” but drought conditions in the rest of the LA region have vanished.
At the beginning of 2019, more than three quarters of California was experiencing “moderate drought” conditions or worse. As of Tuesday, that share had fallen to just under 4 percent.
“Early-to-mid-February precipitation pounded California, ensuring an above-average Sierra Nevada snowpack,” writes meteorologist Brad Rippey in the report.
Even Southern California’s deserts have been getting plenty of precipitation. Rippey points out that on February 14, Palm Springs received nearly 70 percent of its normal annual rainfall in a single day.
Before 2017’s exceptionally wet winter, California had been mired in a years-long drought that left most of the state parched and elected officials scrambling to ensure drinking water wouldn’t run out.
Last year, after below-average winter rainfall, drought conditions began to return. At the start of the current water year (October 1), nearly half of the state was in moderate, severe, or extreme drought.
Weeks of rainy weather have changed that picture dramatically.
Precipitation in the last month has replenished most of California’s largest reservoirs. Nine of the 12 reservoirs tracked by the California Department of Water Resources were filled to above average levels Wednesday, and both Lake Perris (in Riverside County) and the San Luis Reservoir (southeast of San Jose) are approaching capacity.
Snowfall will also bolster the state’s water supply. Snowpack is above the historical median at nearly all of the state’s major mountain peaks. Precipitation is only lagging in the Klamath Mountains, close to the Oregon border, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service,
The difference is clear even in aerial photographs. Compare the two satellite images above. The one on the left was taken New Year’s Day, while the much greener image on the right is from Tuesday.
- Rain storms make final stand in LA [Curbed LA]
- See the LA River cresting toward capacity [Curbed LA]
- With more rain, ‘miracle’ wildflower blooms will blanket LA [Curbed LA]
Comments
"Most of the state, including Los Angeles, however, is still abnormally dry." So that would mean, yes, we are still in a drought.
By LADude on 02.07.19 2:28pm
Drought and abnormally dry are two different things so no most of the State is no longer in a drought.
By LA Denizen on 02.07.19 4:29pm
A draught is "a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water." Still being abnormally dry (i.e. a prolonged period of dryness, "still being") is the indicator of a drought, they are not separate things. And since droughts are measured by prolonged periods, having water immediately following rains does not mean that you are out of a drought.
By LADude on 02.08.19 9:14am
Drought is a more serious degree of dryness and we specifically don’t meet that classification. We are most definitely not in a drought situation anymore as there are specific parameters for that and we do not meet that any longer.
Anyway after the next storms, most of the entire state likely won’t even be in the dry category.
By LA Denizen on 02.08.19 9:59am
That last part is not so "cut and dry" – the seasonal outlook from a few weeks ago expects about the same conditions going forward. That’s worse for the state than they expected in November.
Guess we’ll see!
By JohnnyBlades on 02.08.19 10:45am
Anything coming out of NOAA that extends beyond 14 days is demonstrably unreliable.
By iONu on 02.10.19 2:27am
more horseshit, backed by nothing
what an honest broker you are, golly
By JohnnyBlades on 02.10.19 10:39am
Your idiotic viewpoint is fascinating now that I’m reading it in the future.
By iONu on 02.22.19 9:13pm
It’s not just reservoirs, but underground aquifers, the water table, all used to measure drought conditions. It’s great that we are having an excellent year—but it can only be assessed in the broader picture as a trend over a span of years.
By surfnspy on 02.07.19 2:50pm
Right, it can all change so fast. Could be back to drought conditions in two years, and then recover again. It just sort of goes with California. I don’t see the state NOT having any drought conditions for an extended period of 10 or 20 years.
By DNUice on 02.22.19 2:12pm
Of course, if the 200 year flood event occurs sooner than later, the problem will be the complete opposite – estimates show the entire San Juaquin valley as a huge lake after 21 days of solid rain…
https://www.sciencealert.com/every-200-years-california-endures-a-flood-of-epic-proportions-and-this-could-be-it
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/atmospheric-rivers-california-megaflood-lessons-from-forgotten-catastrophe/
By f8lee50 on 02.07.19 3:53pm
The buzz in the past 48 hrs from weather geeks – meant in a good way – is that late next week’s Atmospheric River is going to be a knockout for SoCal and esp the San Gabriels. The European weather forecasting model is predicting >10" in the highest impacted areas.
Given that much of the region has gotten mostly 10-20" in the past several weeks, this only furthers the adage that ‘when it rains, it pours’ for us in SoCal. I was just reading again about how the 14" of rain in La Crescenta in two days in 1934 killed at least 45 people after it destroyed local dams in that region. Those deaths prompted the building of the ugly concrete channels that we coexist with to this day: Hate to live with them, but prob can’t live without them.
If we get a 10" event next week in those same mountains, it will be great for our water situation but there will inevitably be lives lost and great damage. We are truly the land of nuts, fruits, shakes and floods…
By GusLevy on 02.07.19 10:29pm
Californians should always assume the state is in a drought. Precipitation here is highly variable and very hard to predict with high long-range confidence.
By ImpatientMike! on 02.07.19 5:06pm
If it is or it isn’t there isn’t anything we can do about it. But people should always treat water as a precious resource. Especially in California.
By LAoneWay on 02.07.19 5:57pm
Very true, and should be the case if only on a matter of principle. There are many throughout the world who do not have access to clean, reliable sources of water.
By Brentwood 4 Life on 02.22.19 1:15pm
I read someplace that California has a 5-6 year drought/precipitation cycle, so it’s very hard to make pat assessments about what is normal and what is not. With this kind of unpredictability, in the future the state will have to sequester much more water underground, especially as snow packs are predicted to diminish. I think forward-thinking pols and engineers are thinking about this but it will take money, planning and public acquiescence to ensure California’s water future…
By wangjing on 02.07.19 6:35pm
Seems we should be "collecting" ALL rain water.
Somehow, someway.
By Fineanddandy on 02.07.19 7:19pm
It’s illegal in California to collect rain water.
By myislandXP on 02.08.19 2:24pm
No it isn’t.
By LosFeliz$ean on 02.09.19 12:10am
The "drought" is a myth. We only have water mismanagement. Every year we flush half as much water as all the reservoirs in the state can hold. The state government does stupid things like let dams break, and flush millions of acre feet to the sea because of it. They refuse to build new storage when only a few million acre-feet would add some badly needed stabilization between wet years and dry periods, which are normal.
By iONu on 02.07.19 9:33pm
that’s a cute rw anti-Cali rant
But it’s a joke to call the "drought" a "myth", CA-NV region has essentially been in a drought for 20 years
By JohnnyBlades on 02.08.19 9:20am
"Hand-crafted with care" i.e., data manipulated to ensure the intended outcome.
By LADude on 02.08.19 9:50am
That’s an even cuter rw tinfoilhat cry of "fake news" and "mAnIpUlAtIoN" with nothing whatsoever to substantiate it
It’s a chart of the hydrologic drought index over time for the region in question.
Not sure why it got your panties in a bunch but then, you are…that way
By JohnnyBlades on 02.08.19 10:23am
I think both parties have a point here. As a state we need to be mindful of our water usage because of our persistent drought/dry conditions. But we can also do a better job of infrastructure maintenance. SWP infrastructure is almost 60 years old now, I would imagine there can be improvements made to better manage the water that it handles.
By SC310 on 02.08.19 11:46am
nah, YOU have two good points there
rw curbed trolls who show up to say ‘the drought is a total myth – moonbeam lit all our drinkin’ water on fire for no reason bc CA is libtarded’ are living in their own warped world of whinin’
By JohnnyBlades on 02.09.19 12:40pm