Soaked by heavy rains in recent weeks after a January that saw flooding from a parade of atmospheric river storms, the majority of California — including the Bay Area — is no longer in a drought, federal officials reported Thursday.
Overall, 49.13% of California's land area now can be classified as in a drought down from 84.6% last week, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly report issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Nebraska.
That's the lowest percentage of California that has been in drought in more than three years, since July 21, 2020, when it was 48.2% according to the report.
"The Pacific weather systems of this week and last week added to copious precipitation that has been received from atmospheric rivers since December 2022, especially over California," wrote Richard Heim, a meteorologist with NOAA.
The last time that no part of California was in even a moderate drought was in February 2020, the report noted.
"The rain has improved California soil moisture and streamflow levels, while the snow has increased mountain snowpack to much above-normal levels," Heim noted. "Most California reservoirs have refilled with water levels near or above average, but groundwater levels remain low and may take months to recover. Abnormal dryness and moderate to severe drought were contracted across much of California to reflect the above-normal precipitation of recent months, above-normal snowpack, and improved reservoir levels."
Legally, all 58 of California's counties have been in a drought emergency that was declared by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October, 2021, a status that included a state order for local water agencies to impose conservation restrictions on homes and businesses.
As the current wet winter has unfolded, Newsom has directed officials at the state Department of Water Resources to report back to him in April, after the winter rain and snow season is over, with recommendations on what parts of the state should be removed from the drought emergency declaration.
California has endured three record-dry years in a row. They have been marked by severe heat waves, massive wildfires, water restrictions for millions of people and water shortages at farms.
In November, 40.9% of the state was in extreme drought, the third worst of four categories the report uses, and 16.5% was in exceptional drought, the worst. After a series of nine atmospheric river storms from late December to mid-January, which triggered flooding, killed 20 people and brought snow blizzards to the Sierra Nevada, the Drought Monitor removed all of the state from those two most severe categories.
On Thursday, 24.9% of California remained in "severe drought," the second-worst category, down from 91.8% in November.
According to the report, none of California's 15 coastal counties, where many reservoirs are 100% full, are still in any kind of drought status. The Sierra Nevada, which has the biggest snow pack in 30 years, is also completely out of drought from Fresno County's higher elevations to Sierra County north of Lake Tahoe.
In the Bay Area, all nine counties are either entirely or mostly in "abnormally dry" status now, a level below drought.
Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties are in the same classification, according to the report, which is based rainfall totals, reservoir levels, snowpack, soil moisture and other measures.
State water officials have noted that while many reservoirs are full or above their historic averages, some, like the state's largest, Shasta, or its third largest, Trinity, both near Redding, fell so low during the drought they haven't filled yet. Shasta on Thursday was 60% full, for example.
They also have said that water supplies still vary widely across the state. While reservoirs are brimming in coastal counties that took the brunt of January storms, Southern California has a water crisis with low levels on one of its key sources, the Colorado River, which hasn't benefitted much from the big storms.
"Some areas will likely come out of drought conditions because of the very wet conditions we've had," said Jeanine Jones, a top official at the Department of Water Resources, last month. "But it really depends on a water supplier's individual sources of supply."
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