The National Drought Monitor extended its “abnormally dry” classification into western Butte County in its weekly update Thursday.
That’s nearly double the area from the start of the year.
Another 39 percent of the state is experiencing “moderate drought.” The U.S. Drought Monitor is produced through a partnership between the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
But the National Weather Service is also saying the state is in a drought, although it specifies it’s a “little d drought” rather than a “Big D Drought.” A little d drought is when it isn’t raining, snowpack is low and streams and rivers are down.
“Big D drought is more of a political term where impacts like water shortages, agricultural loss, livestock sell off, economic/tourism impacts etc.
The update highlighted things like the roller coaster rainfall season we’ve experienced: October was dry, November was very wet, December was dry and January was pretty wet.
February has been dry — and unusually warm — so far, and that situation looks like it will last at least another 10 days.
The snowpack has also been subpar, and is just 23 percent of normal.
That’s the third driest on record, according to the weather service.
Steve Schoonover is the city editor of the Enterprise-Record and Oroville Mercury-Register.

JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) – As strange as it may sound, drenching rains and a 5-inch snowfall in December have done little to diminish severe drought conditions in part of central Mississippi.
The stretch of abnormal dryness runs along the i-20 corridor.
If this pattern were to persist, agricultural crops could be impacted.
We spoke with our Fox 40 Meteorologist, Patrick Ellis about the reasons behind the continued drought.
"We’ve been abnormally dry for quite some time across much of the state and along the I-20 corridor," said Fox 40 Meteorologist Patrick Ellis.
"We’re still running below normal as far as the season is concerned; about 1/3 of an inch for the season.
but the issue is we’re leading up from fall being dry."
Looking ahead much-needed rain is on the way, and according to the National Drought Monitor moderate to heavy rain, 1-2 inches, will provide additional drought relief.
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AUSTIN, Texas — According to this week’s update of the Drought Monitor, 65 percent of Texas is now experiencing drought conditions.
Severe drought (orange on the Drought Monitor) has now encompassed areas north and west of Austin, including much of the Colorado River basin and areas as far south as Fredericksburg along the 290 corridor.
South and east of the Capitol City, abnormally dry (noted in yellow) conditions continue from Austin to Bastrop to Lockhart to San Marcos.
NOAA said the drought footprint across America is the most expansive observed since late 2014.
Looking back, the strongest El Niño on record was in progress at that time and likely the main reason for excessive rain that year.
And El Niño, often the Texas drought buster, might be coming back as soon as the end of 2018.
For now, cooler-than-normal waters along the equatorial Pacific continue to show La Niña conditions at play.
It’s been weakening since October.
This week’s forecast from NOAA shows a 55 percent chance of neutral El Niño conditions developing around March to May.
We often refer to this absence of La Niña or El Niño as La Nada, which means "the nothing" in Spanish.

Image: Esa Alexander The Shoprite Group has dedicated its disaster relief fund to be used exclusively for water relief – all R1.4-million of it.
In a statement the retailer said it had been inundated with customers who offered to donate bottles of water to drought-stricken areas in the country.
In response the company has made it possible for customers to add increments of R5 to their purchases at tills.
The money will go towards the fund and the company said it would save them from having to pack and transport water donations.
The company has implemented various strategies to save water at its stores‚ distribution centres and its head office in the Cape Town suburb of Brackenfell.
They have stopped washing their trucks and even placed 500ml plastic bottles in toilet cisterns at all supermarkets.
This month the city’s water users will see tariff increases on their accounts in line with Level 6 water restrictions.
"We find ourselves in a truly unprecedented situation and‚ as a City‚ we have had to make some incredibly difficult choices.
It must be emphasised that all water and sanitation revenue from the tariff increases goes toward water and sanitation services.
The tariffs are linked to usage.

As High Temps Hit the Bay Area, Experts Talk Drought in SF High temperatures in the Bay Area have had many people skipping work and soaking up the sun.
During the SF Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association event, experts discussed ways to deal with another dry spell.
"That’s not gonna happen tomorrow, but we will be thinking about that in the future as droughts get deeper."
"That’s gross," said Julie Delosreyes.
"I mean, there is nothing you could add to the water to make me feel better about drinking sewer water."
As the climate warms, experts say it will have to change from a snow-based to a rain-based system.
"So more precipitation is falling as rain not as snow, and that leads to quicker runoffs," water expert Adrian Covert said.
"We don’t have the infrastructure to capture the runoff, so we’re losing water."
People flocked to the Santa Cruz Wharf for fresh seafood and kayak rentals, which would usually be closed in February.
Not only are Bay Area residents enjoying the high temperatures, New Yorker Lorraine Olsen says she’s happy to be in warm weather.

Cape Town’s ominous day zero has been moved back from April 16 to May 11, thanks to a generous donation from farmers in the Western Cape province.
On Feb. 6, farmers north of the city opened their dams to allow about 10 million liters of water to flow down to the drought-stricken city.
The city has struggled to manage meager water sources and as of Feb. 1, water usage was forcibly reduced to 50 liters per person per day.
Learn More The province’s farmers, though, have lived with the effects of climate change for several years now as annual rainfall has steadily decreased and have changed their relationship with what is now a precious resource, saving water even during wetter years.
The water will flow from private dams on farms to the municipal Steenbras dam, one of the dams which supplies Cape Town’s residents.
Agricultural water in the region is managed by water users associations, which each farmer must belong to.
Average weekly water usage of dams in the Western Cape City of Cape TownAgricultureOther Urban Usage62%317City of Cape TownAgricultureOther Urban Usage62%317 Data: City of Cape Town Still, agricultural water users understand that their relative abundance of water is because they do not have the burden of supplying water to as populated an area as Cape Town.
The water associations offer a lesson in planning to the city of Cape Town.
Farmers throughout the province have already reduced their water usage by as much as 80%.
“A lot of our areas—for two or three weeks—are already in day zero,” Opperman told Quartz.

For example, Bisnett says, “Shasta Reservoir is at 74 percent of capacity.” Another way to look at it, she explained is that “it’s at 102 percent of average full."
Are we in a drought?
“It looks like we are in for a dry year, and that could easily become a drought,” he explained.
"We’ve had rebound of some fish this year from the last wet water year we had, but the Delta smelt didn’t come back.
Swain also points out that for some parts of Southern California the drought never ended, including where the Thomas Fire burned in last year.
Where are we starting from this year?
But Lund says some of the groundwater has recovered from the previous drought.
Still he admits that over pumping could get worse, because if rain and snow doesn’t fall then farms and cities will need to draw more groundwater.
Because of that, he says Southern California is still under significant fire activity.
— Don Fischer (@djdogfish) February 6, 2018 All experts echoed a common theme: This is California, and we should always have some pressure to increase our water conservation.

Los Angeles actually receives 25% of its annual precipitation in February, but with one week into the month, things aren’t exactly going as one would expect.
Below is a closer look at why.
Weather highlights: Drought worsening across the Southwest U.S. Fire weather for most valleys and mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties – avoid outdoor burning this week High temperatures of as much as 10 to 20 degrees above normal across Southern California Dry warm weather continues to dominate across much of California this winter.
This anomalous weather scenario actually extends beyond California well into a large area of the southwestern U.S. where the drought is even more dramatic.
The weather pattern in coming weeks not exactly a wet one A solid high pressure ridge is expected to continue dominating the weather pattern across much of the west including California.
It is currently in a phase that does not show any symptom of changing, favoring the presence of a potent high pressure ridge over the west coast, with little precipitation and above normal temperatures for much of California.
RELATED: Rocky Mountain Drought Another Problem for Southern California Water Supply Despite the MJO mode forecasted, some areas of California will still receive some precipitation.
However, the general weather scenario across the state will most likely be one marked by dry weather and higher than normal temperatures.
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Just a few days after Hurricane Harvey devastated the Texas coast, only 4 percent of Texas was listed in drought conditions.
With over 90 days since the last measurable rainfall here in Dawson County and over 100 days in the Amarillo area, more than 40 percent of Texas now is listed in a drought condition.
“As soon as Hurricane Harvey cleared Texas, then we almost immediately started going into the next drought,” said Mark Wentzel, a hydrologist for the Texas Water Development Board said in a Texas Tribune article dated Feb. 4.
While August, 2017, was the wettest year in Texas for the past 124 years, every month since has been considerably dry, according to records kept by various weather organizations.
Beaumont, which received about 50 inches of rain when Harvey stayed in rotation around the city, currently meets the requirements of a moderate drought situation.
All of the 26 counties listed in the Panhandle near Amarillo are in a severe to extreme drought and most have burn bans in effect.
Farmers in Dawson County and the surrounding area who have cotton growing acres are looking to the sky and wondering when a significant amount of rain might prepare the ground for the 2018 cotton crop.
The average cotton planting time begins in mid-May and continues through the first two weeks of June.
Ample rainfall is needed to get the crop started each year.

Eastern cold snaps offset by warm West to boost temperatures Drought covers more than one-third of lower 48 states In January, the East was cold, the West was warm and drought reached its largest extent since 2014, the National Centers for Environmental Information said Wednesday.
The average temperature across the U.S. in January was 32.2 degrees Fahrenheit (0.1 Celsius).
Cold snaps in the central U.S. and East brought more than 4,000 new daily cold temperature records, according to a statement online.
Warmer readings in the western U.S. offset the chill, as monthly temperatures in nine states ranked among the 10 warmest on record and 2,000 daily warm temperature records were logged.
Drought, which has left winter wheat struggling across the Great Plains, expanded to cover 38.4 percent of the contiguous U.S., the most since May 2014.
Only 14 percent of Kansas wheat was rated in good or excellent condition at the end of the month, the lowest for that time since 2006, according to an earlier U.S. Department of Agriculture report.
— With assistance by Megan Durisin