What a difference!
How drought-buster winter has changed NorCal.
Jerry Brown declared earlier this month, but it’s too early to parade in our rain, scientists say.
The thing about record droughts is that they take a long time to recover from.
"The odds of the state completely recovering from its extreme dryness within two years are estimated at less than 1 percent," said Dr. Eugene R. Wahl, paleoclimatologist and lead author of the study for the National Centers for Environmental Information of the NOAA.
So despite a wetter-than-average winter, areas that suffered the worst during the dry spell may need decades to recover, scientists say.
Some locations are more than 8 feet behind in rainfall.
Most of Northern and interior California has seen a short-term replenishment of lakes and reservoirs, but long-term recovery is not a sure thing.
Still, the much higher water levels are a strong first step, as the above gallery shows.
Click to see what dramatic changes the wet winter has made to Northern California.