Recent storms have drenched enough of California that some areas have almost twice their average rainfall totals.
Even drought status has been pushed away for all but the southwest and north edges of the state.
“In wet years, we have to prepare for dry years, and in dry years for wet years.” Mild to moderate drought spread over the state during last year’s dry winter, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
As recently as Thanksgiving 2018, 100 percent of California was considered to be somewhere between abnormally dry and in extreme drought.
Now some areas have 150 percent to 180 percent rainfall of what they would normally receive by this point in the water year, which runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
“Things have been coming up, though.” The previous week, the coastal counties from San Diego to San Luis Obispo were all in moderate drought, as were most of Riverside and Imperial counties and the southwest corner of San Bernardino County.
Now, that area has been reduced to San Diego County, part of western Riverside County, southeastern Orange County and a sliver of western Imperial County.
Lund said water agencies in those areas are prepared.
“We have two months to go in the wet season, so it could go either way.” The Drought Monitor report, the rainfall accumulations and a measurement that showed the Sierra snowpack was at exactly 100 percent of its historical average on Jan. 31 has been a stream of recent good news for California’s water watchers.
In most areas, however, it hasn’t been quite as rainy as 2017, when an atmospheric river parked over the Pacific Ocean soaked the state and broke a five-year drought, with the state’s second-highest recorded runoff.