It’s Official — California Is Out Of The Drought.
California’s drought is finally over.
Gov.
In 2015, California’s snowpack was at just 5 percent of its historic average.
Thanks in large part to a very wet winter, the state’s snowpack on March 30 was 164 percent higher than the historic average.
On average, the melted snow provides about 30 percent of California’s water needs.
But that doesn’t mean Californians should start using water frivolously.
In his announcement, Brown pointed out, "This drought emergency is over, but the next drought could be around the corner.
Conservation must remain a way of life."
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REDDING, Calif. – Farmers under the Bella Vista Water District were relieved to find out they would be receiving 100 percent of water allocations, but are still paying off costs from drought years.
Robert Nash of Nash Ranch in Redding said their main crops are hay, grains, and pumpkins.
"The pumpkins need a lot of water, and if we have alfalfa hay, that takes a lot of water," Nash said.
The irrigation for his crops come from the Bella Vista Water District and a pond on his ranch.
"We store rainwater, rain run-off there, it’s by permit, and there’s about 400 acre feet there that we can store and use, as well," Nash said.
Nash added that in 2015 Bella Vista Water District was not granted any water for farms, forcing him to cut back on irrigation.
Although it has been a wet winter, there is still a long road ahead to recovery for farmers.
"Irrigation is expensive, and we’ve had a couple years of drought.
So we’ve gotten used to not irrigating, and so, it’ll take a couple years to get things ramped back up into an irrigated crop rotation," Nash said.
However, he’s optimistic about the upcoming year and will be planting 20 percent more crops than previous years.

Historic California drought over for now, governor says.
FRESNO, Calif. — Thirsty California lawns faded to brown from a lack of water in four extraordinarily dry years have revived to bright green in neighborhoods across the state.
Dry riverbeds of sand and tumbleweeds that snake their way through farmers’ fields now charge with water swelling up their banks.
The turnaround has been stark.
After years of brown fields and cracked earth, monster storms blanketed California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains this winter with deep snow that flows into the network of rivers and streams that supply much of the state’s water.
California uses more water each year than nature makes available, and one wet winter won’t change the long-term outlook, environmentalists cautioned.
“Water may appear to be in abundance right now,” said Kate Poole, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Brown declared the emergency in 2014, and officials later ordered mandatory conservation for the first time in state history.
Even now, the governor has kept the drought emergency in place for four counties, most of them at the state’s farming heartland, where emergency drinking water projects will continue to help address diminished groundwater supplies.
Water conservation will become a way of life in the state, said Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board, who led conservation planning.

California governor declares end to drought emergency.
One of the worst droughts in California history has officially ended, Governor Jerry Brown declared, but not before it strained the state’s farm economy and threatened water supplies for millions of residents.
Govenor Brown’s announcement on Friday covered the bulk of the state, leaving only the counties of Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Toulomne under restriction.
inRead invented by Teads The emergency declaration allowed the state to cut water usage.
It is estimated that urban water consumption was reduced by up to 25 percent, as people were made aware of the need to treat water as a resource and to keep its use to a minimum.
Hosing down driveways and the watering of gardens during or immediately after rainfall were banned.
At a municipal level, more permanent changes included stripping out lawns and replacing them with more drought-tolerant plants, and introducing more efficient sprinkler systems.
As a result of the drought, up to 100 million trees have died.
The ending of the drought coincided with the annual snow survey which monitors the depth of the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada mountain range which supply up to 30 percent of California’s water.
The conservation of water is likely to remain an issue for the state, despite the lifting of the current emergency.

First Lady Margaret Kenyatta has given gave a personal commitment to continue with efforts to alleviate the suffering of 3 million Kenyans facing starvation sparked off by the prolonged drought.
She urged other Kenyans of goodwill to stand together and continue galvanizing support in solidarity with the victims of drought, hunger and starvation.
She said it was heartbreaking to see children, women and men undergo so much suffering occasioned by one of the longest and worst drought in decades.
"I have witnessed it first hand during my visit to Marsabit in February.
Because their pain is our pain," said the First Lady.
She applauded the Muslim Women’s Network for organizing last evening’s resource mobilization dinner in their efforts to empathize and show compassion to those affected by the drought.
Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs Ambassador Amina Mohammed who brought over Sh4.3 million (from herself and friends) to the fundraiser described Kenya as a resilient nation that has overcome many daunting challenges in the past.
She was hopeful Kenyans will continue mobilizing more resources until the current drought-related crisis is resolved.
The fundraiser realized over over Sh17 million including Sh1 million each from Mama Ngina Kenyatta, Kenya Commercial Bank and Parastatals under the Ministry of Tourism.
Former President Daniel arap Moi and Deputy President William Ruto gave Sh500,000 each while while Baringo Senator Gedion Moi and the Leader of Majority in Parliament Aden Duale brought Sh400,000 and Sh200,000 respectively.

The surface water supply around the state is in good shape, but it’s the groundwater that worries people like Tom Hawley, a meteorologist and hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine.
Most of the southern half of the state is now considered to be in a moderate drought, according to the latest report released on April 4 by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
While an active weather pattern brought heavy snow and rain to the region in recent weeks to put a dent in the drought, Hawley said things are about to change.
"I think, over the next couple of weeks, we’re looking at below-normal precipitation.
"I don’t like to see below-normal precipitation here in April.
Raymond town officials issued a notice a couple of weeks ago, telling residents that the drought isn’t over and that it would take three to six months of abnormally high rainfall to make up the 10- to 15-inch precipitation deficit and recharge aquifers.
"In the span of three weeks, southern New Hampshire has moved from a severe drought to a moderate drought.
Those communities with surface water supplies are in a much better position to rescind their water bans," he said.
An outdoor water ban adopted last fall also remains in effect in Newport, one of the towns in Sullivan County where severe drought conditions persist.
Exeter adopted mandatory outdoor water restrictions and offered free water conservation kits to residents.

Mammoth site veteran challenges study on drought as cause of death.
A recent Baylor University study suggesting that the beasts at the Waco Mammoth National Monument might have died of drought rather than flood has raised the hackles of the man who oversaw the excavation of the bones years ago.
Now Calvin Smith, retired director of Baylor’s natural history museum, is officially challenging the study.
The Baylor team found marks of hide beetles on the mammoth bones, suggesting that the carcasses were exposed to open air for months, not covered up in a catastrophic mudslide as researchers had believed for decades.
“There would have been no mass burial as we found them,” he wrote.
“They are saying the circumstances are totally different from what we experienced over 18 years,” he said.
“They’re throwing that out the window.
… To call a former researcher that has done the work is normal scientific investigation.” Esker, the co-author of the new study and a former director of the mammoth site, said he had been advised against commenting on Smith’s challenge.
Nordt did not respond over the last two weeks to interview requests for this story.
Driese, the geology professor who oversaw Esker and Wiest in their research, defended the methods as sound.

Jerry Brown announced the end of the state’s drought emergency Friday, stressing that water conservation must be a permanent part of life as the state adapts to climate change and prepares for the next drought.
Brown lifted the state of emergency in most of the Golden State after one of its wettest winters on record, which brought heavy snowfall to the Sierra Nevada and refilled reservoirs.
The California Water Resources Control Board will continue to require cities and water agencies to report monthly on water use and will keep prohibitions in place on water waste, including watering immediately after rain, hosing down sidewalks or watering grass on street medians.
Some researchers concluded that the three years from 2012 to 2014 were the most severe drought in the past 1,200 years.
State regulators imposed mandatory conservation targets for cities and water agencies in May 2015 and tracked their progress monthly.
► Related:February record warm for 16 states, 145M Americans As of Friday, snow sensors across the Sierra Nevada measured California’s snowpack at 161% of average.
The plan calls for setting new community-specific conservation targets.
Environmental groups also have called for a continued focus on saving water and using water more efficiently.
“Moving forward, it will be important to ensure that conservation and efficiency measures are applied to all sources of water, including recycled water.” ► Related:Out West, snow is so deep scientists don’t have tools to measure it ► More:Drought covers just 17% of California, down from 73% three months ago Climate change is projected to lead to more severe droughts.
"The extremes of severe drought followed by floods that we’ve experienced these last few years is what will happen more often as climate change accelerates," Marcus said.

"The reservoir systems are in very good shape, with some nearing 100 percent capacity," he added.
"We evaluate the drought indicators at the beginning of each week, so when we look at the indicators on Monday it will include all the rain" that New Jersey received during the past week, he said.
Some trouble spots Although most reservoirs in North Jersey are faring well, ranging from 93 to 100 percent of their capacity, two large reservoirs in Central Jersey remain below average for this time of year, according to Assistant New Jersey State Climatologist Mathieu Gerbush at Rutgers University.
The Spruce Run Reservoir is currently at 65.6 percent capacity and the Round Valley Reservoir is at 71.8 percent capacity, Gerbush said.
If flows are near average, then we know groundwater has responded well and that last lingering drought indicator will be diminished or in many spots gone," Robinson said.
Status of other reservoirs As of April 3, the overall water storage level of 12 of North Jersey’s biggest reservoirs was at about 94 percent capacity, which is slightly above average for early April, according to state DEP data.
Here’s a breakdown of the latest levels reported at each of the four major water suppliers in North Jersey: The Suez-NJ System, which has three reservoirs in Bergen County, is now at 100 percent of its capacity, after being down to about 60 percent in January and February, then up to 90 percent on March 31.
The Newark Water Department’s five reservoirs are now at about 95 percent of their capacity, after being down as low as 52 percent on Nov. 30, 2016.
The North Jersey District Water Supply Commission’s two reservoirs are at about 93 percent of their capacity, after dropping to less than 50 percent in September, October and November last year.
The Jersey City Water Department’s two reservoirs are at about 93 percent of their capacity, after dropping to less than 60 percent in November 2016.

The Nature researchers found that the most severe depletion is concentrated "in a few regions that rely significantly on overexploited aquifers to grow crops, mainly the USA, Mexico, the Middle East and North Africa, India, Pakistan and China, including almost all the major breadbaskets and population centres of the planet."
The group mapped global food trade flows from these areas with the most-stressed aquifers—places like the California Central Valley, the Midwest’s High Plains (where farmers have for years been draining the Ogallala aquifer to grow corn and cotton), India’s breadbasket, the Punjab, and China’s main growing region, the North Plain.
Note that the group was looking at data from a period just before the onset of California’s recent drought (2011-2016), which triggered a massive frenzy of water-pump drilling and an epic drawdown of aquifers.
The new study underlines a point I’ve made before: Water reserves in California’s Central Valley are in a long-term state of decline—aquifer recharge during wet years never fully replaces all that was taken away during dry times.
Of those seven countries that use massive amounts of water from dwindling aquifers to grow crops, just three are major exporters of those crops: the United States, Mexico, and Pakistan.
They also looked at countries that rely most on imported food grown with fossil water.
The researchers found that a "vast majority of the world’s population lives in countries sourcing nearly all their staple crop imports from partners who deplete groundwater to produce these crops, highlighting risks for global food and water security."
Along with Mexico, Iran, and China, the researchers placed the United States among a handful of countries that are "particularly exposed" to the risks of groundwater scarcity "because they both produce and import food irrigated from rapidly depleting aquifers."
The paper isn’t trying to make the point that food trade is somehow bad.
Rather, it’s that global food trade hinges increasingly on a vanishing resource, and that the water footprint of our food supply is largely invisible to both end consumers and policymakers.