California’s three-year drought is on the verge of ending, thanks to a string of powerful Pacific storms in recent months that left behind a record snowpack in the Sierra Nevada range.
(Bloomberg) — California’s three-year drought is on the verge of ending, thanks to a string of powerful Pacific storms in recent months that left behind a record snowpack in the Sierra Nevada range.
By June, conditions across most of the state will be the best they’ve been since 2020, Jon Gottschalck, chief of the operational prediction branch at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, said in a conference call Thursday. The storms, called atmospheric rivers, brought “an astonishing amount of rain and snow to California,” he said.
California started the year with more than 97% of its land in drought, but that’s declined to just over 36% now, according to the US Drought Monitor.
Read More: California Reels as ‘Rivers’ in Sky Morph From Blessing to Curse
The drought has taxed municipal water supplies, raised wildfire risks and hit the state’s agricultural sector hard. In recent years, some farmers were ripping out almond trees that require large amounts of water, and planting other crops.
As snow melts across California’s mountains, drought conditions are expected to disappear across the state, with the exception of areas along the Oregon border and parts of the southern deserts.
The most populous US state gets the bulk of its water from rain and snow that falls from October to April. Another storm is forecast to strike California next week but then the string of rains and snow should stop, Gottschalk said.
Water running off from melting snow may raise flood risks across the state and parts of Nevada. Melting snow will likely raise the risk of flooding in other parts of the US in the spring, including the upper Mississippi River from Minnesota’s Twin Cities to St. Louis, and along the Red River of the North in North Dakota.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.