Record snowpack, nearly full reservoirs: The state of California’s drought after an epic winter

By Rachel Ramirez and Brandon Miller, CNN

Updated 8:46 AM EDT, Mon March 27, 2023

California snowpack, which serves as a natural reservoir that eases the drought, has largely reached all-time record high. Mario Tama/Getty Images

CNN — California has faced an onslaught of powerful, atmospheric river storms this winter, which has led to record-breaking snowpack, nearly full reservoirs and overflowing watersheds.

At this time last year, all of California was caught in a drought. But according to the latest US Drought Monitor released Thursday morning, just over a third of California remains in some level of drought – the lowest amount since the drought began – with severe drought only covering 8% of the state.

For the last three years, the state has been in desperate need of some rain and snow. Just a month ago, more than 33 million people in California, including in the major metropolitan areas of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, were facing an unrelenting drought. Years of unfavorable precipitation trends and more intense heat waves have fed directly to the state’s prolonged, historic megadrought that has triggered dire water shortages.

Now, that number has dropped dramatically, with 4.6 million people still facing drought conditions.

Drought conditions have improved in much of California since December

Forty percent of California was classified as "extreme" or "exceptional" drought in early December, before a series of atmospheric river events brought a deluge of rainfall and snow to the state. Drought conditions have steadily improved over the last four months.

Source: US Drought Monitor Graphic: Renée Rigdon, CNN

Snowpack, which serves as a natural reservoir that eases the drought, has largely reached an all-time record high. The state’s largest reservoirs, which were recently at critically low levels, have been replenished and are way past its historical averages. Groundwater reserves, however, are still having a hard time recovering, even with all the rain.

“The good news is that the wet winter has eased the drought significantly,” Jon Gottschalck, of the Climate Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said at a media briefing last week. “Drought is expected to improve further or go away completely across much of California.” (continue to full article at cnn.com)