News In a seemingly short reprieve, California, along with all of San Diego County, is once again in a drought.
In a report by the United States Drought Monitor, 44% of California is now in a drought, that figure up 12% from last week.
A few weeks ago, the monitor warned the state was currently in the “abnormally dry” category, but has since been elevated to a “moderate drought” category.
The drought has been said to have been a major factor in the wildfires that ravaged California in December.
So far, this winter season has brought little rain with it to Southern California.
Jodi Kodesh, a meteorologist for NBC 7 news, said “It’s not good news for our area, but it’s nothing too surprising.
This has been a record year for us.” San Diego has received less than half of the normal amount of rainfall this season so far.
Temperatures during the last three months have been well above average for much of the Southwest, including California, and this has increased evaporative demand which tends to dry out vegetation, soils, and water resources faster than under normal temperature conditions.” February is the peak season for snow accumulation in California, and officials from the Department of Water Resources met at Echo Summit to test levels of snowpack on the mountain.
We’re at 30 percent snowpack right now, and last year at this time we were at 182 percent.” Most of California’s rain and snow falls between November 1st and March 31st, and with current forecasts, meteorologists don’t see much hope on the horizon for the big storms we need to fill our reservoirs.
The next two weeks alone are forecasted to be uncharacteristically hot days with almost no chance for rain or snow.