After two weeks of moderate to heavy rain and snow, drought is on the wane across the United States. Only 16 percent of the nation is in drought, down 3 points since last week and a drop of 8 points since the start of the year, said the weekly Drought Monitor.
In California, 49 percent of the state is free of drought, a remarkable situation after five years of drought. One year ago, arid conditions, ranging from moderate to exceptional drought, covered 95 percent of the state, which ranks No. 1 in the value of agriculture. “Statewide snowpack (snow water equivalent) is almost twice normal for late January and somewhat more than twice normal in the southern Sierra Nevada,” said the Monitor.
“It might be noted, however, that to date groundwater levels have not responded as one might expect and remain critically low. In most of the central foothills on the east side of the San Joaquin Valley, plus a number of other communities and cities across the nearby mountains and valleys, water supply is dependent on groundwater,” said the report. “Thus potable water is still being trucked in to serve residents with dry wells in areas such as Tuolumne County, and the deepest wells may not respond to the recent inundation for many more months.”
Jeanine Jones of the California Department of Water Resources told the Los Angeles Times the weekly Monitor can be “misleading in California” because the state relies on reservoirs and canals to move water long distances and because snowmelt provides water long into the summer. “We’re cautiously optimistic … but we have another month and a half of the wet season to see how we end up.”