Active winter pattern leads to significant drought improvement across California
A very active winter season that featured relentless storms brought significant drought improvement to California.
According to a March 14 Drought Monitor report, only 8.24 percent of California is currently labeled in a drought. Back at the start of winter, 70.11 percent of California was labeled in a drought.
Drought conditions as of Mar. 14, 2017 across California. Image form Drought Monitor.
Two years ago that number was 98.11 percent. It is quite impressive that a drought that started about five years ago was greatly reduced in only a few months.
Drought conditions two years ago in March 2015. Notice, the majority of the state was covered in extreme to exceptional drought conditions. Image from Drought Monitor.
Check out 263 California drought maps since 2011
An active storm track this winter brought moisture-laden storm systems across California with some of them possessing a Pineapple Express connection. While the excessive rain and snow did have some negative impacts at times, the overall impact was positive as the rain lead to significant improvement in the drought.
As you can see in the image below, one positive impact was water level improvement in many of the major reservoirs across the state.
Major reservoir levels as of Mar. 19, 2017. Image from CA.gov.
At the end of February, the overall percentage of the historical average was 87 percent with the majority of reservoirs at or above their historical average.
Looking back two years from today, it was a much different story with all of the major reservoirs below their historical average.
Major reservoir levels across California on March 19, 2015. Image from CA.gov.
Let's take a look at how much rain was measured across parts of the state between December and the end of February.
It also hasn't been just rainfall that has been plentiful. Snowpack has been impressive across the Sierra. Mammoth Mountain broke a snowfall record in January with 245.5 inches. February was an equally impressive snowy month, coming in at 163 inches which was ranked second. The snow total for the season currently stands at 519.5 inches.
There will be opportunity for more rain and snow during the rest of the week with one storm impacting the state Tuesday and Wednesday and another arriving Thursday night and continuing through Saturday.
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Thanks for reading! Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @RootWx or e-mail me at jordan.root@accuweather.com
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