California Continues in Severe Drought Blues
There was hope last summer than an El Nino coming for the winter would bring much needed rain and snow to the state and alleviate the drought conditions that have been ongoing for more than three years. However, as the summer turned into early fall the El Nino weakened and to me that spelled problems. I made my winter forecast saying that while this winter would be wetter than last (not a difficult thing to do) that rain and snow accumulations would still be below normal.
Now that a great portion of the rainfall season is in the rear view mirror the writing is on the wall. Though the first half of December 2014 was wet to very wet, since then rain and snow has been below to far below normal. The was an almost two-month stretch of little or no rain and snow.
So where does that put California? Unless there is a late-season miracle, it is putting the state back in a similar place to last year.
Here are three graphics that tell the story.
The first two graphics show the snow water equivalent in the Sierra snowpack as a percentage of normal.
THIS YEAR:
LAST YEAR:
Statewide the percent of normal is only 19 percent this year compared to 33 percent last year. That’s incredible considering how dry last year was. One of the reasons for this was that the storms in early December were very warm storms and dropped a lot of rain but little snow.
The third map is the Drought Monitor.
Note here the current percentage of California covered by extreme to exceptional drought is 67.46 percent while last year it was 65.89 percent. Almost two percent more this year to last.
These are all sad statistics. The only good news is that major reservoirs are at a higher level of storage right now compared to last year with Oroville more than 11 percent closer to the historical average average and Shasta 23 percent closer to its historical average.
All things considered, there is very little good news to be found.
You can follow me on Twitter @Kenwxman.
