The rain and heavy snow that has battered California since December has started to finally improve drought conditions across the state.
(Bloomberg) — The rain and heavy snow that has battered California since December has started to finally improve drought conditions across the state.
The amount of parched land in the state dropped to 95%, down from almost 98% a week before, according to the US Drought Monitor. The amount of land affected by extreme drought, one of the worst categories, also has fallen to less than 1%, down from 27.1% a week ago, the monitor said in its weekly update for conditions through Jan. 10.
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 just under half of the 48 contiguous states are in some form of drought.
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