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The torrential rain lashing California over the last few weeks has had a massive impact on the drought across the state.
The U.S. Drought Monitor shows that only 0.32 percent of the state is now under "Extreme Drought" conditions, with 45.68 percent in "Severe Drought", as of January 10, 2023. The rest of the state is either under "Moderate Drought", or out of drought and classified as "Abnormally Dry", with 4.62 percent of the state now classified as such.
This is a huge change from the data gathered only last week, on January 3, where 27.10 percent of the state was in "Extreme Drought", and only 2.07 percent was drought-free.
National Weather Service data shows that the majority of California has received between 400 and 600 percent more rain than average for this time of year from December 26, 2022 to January 9, 2023.
Southern California in particular has received huge volumes of rain: on January 8 and 9, some areas of Santa Barbara experienced up to 16 inches across the two-day period alone. This led to widespread disruptions to roads and infrastructure, as well as massive flooding. At least 17 people have been killed in the flooding.
There is an even larger difference between the latest drought data and that gathered in October 2022, when 16.57 percent of the state was in the drought monitor's most severe category of drought, "Exceptional Drought", and 24.34 percent was under "Extreme Drought". At that time, only 0.23 percent of the state was free of drought.
"The past three years have been the driest three-year period on record," Jeff Mount, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California Water Policy Center, previously told Newsweek. "That just beats the driest three-year period on record from 2013 to 2015. And both of these three-year periods have been the hottest on record."
While these rains have clearly had a big impact on the drought across the state, it may not be enough, or the right conditions, to relieve the overarching megadrought that has plagued the western U.S. for decades.
"It's important to remember that timing and type of precipitation (rain vs. snow) is crucial for staying out of drought," Jacob Petersen-Perlman, a water resources geography expert and assistant professor at East Carolina University, previously told Newsweek.
"Timing also matters—all the rain at once means that much of it will run off into the ocean instead of filling California's reservoirs. Second, if it continues to rain like it has been raining in California but not enough snow falls in the Sierras, drought may still persist," Petersen-Perlman said.
Additionally, despite increases in water levels over the past weeks, many of California's crucial largest reservoirs, including Lake Shasta and Lake Oroville, are still below average levels.
The weather doesn't appear to be letting up anytime soon, however, so next week's drought data may reveal even further reductions in drought conditions.
"The ongoing unsettled weather in the West associated with the active Atmospheric River pattern unfortunately continues into this weekend with another couple rounds of heavy precipitation forecast," the National Weather Service said in a statement.
"Lower elevation valley/coastal rain and high elevation mountain snow is already ongoing this morning in the Pacific Northwest and will spread into California through the day Friday as another Pacific storm system approaches the coast."
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About the writer
Jess Thomson is a Newsweek Science Reporter based in London UK. Her focus is reporting on science, technology and healthcare. ... Read more