Is The California Drought Over? What Does this Mean for SoCal?
2017 Californias Drought epidemic has taken a big hit by Pacific storms this beginning year. Since December, a strong storm packed in with moisture has been pushing one storm after the other into the state. Rain and snow have been coming down to our communities and mountains, which has been causing some flooding, but with that, the storms have been adding a significant amount of water to soil, streams, and rivers, as well as a good amount of water freezing to make snow up in out mountains.
The Extreme drought situations that some areas of SoCal have been experiencing over the past years, is not as intense now as it was a year ago. a significant improvement has been showing in the northern part of the Golden State. Despite the relief in that area over the last month, a large portion of SoCal still remains in that dark shade of red on the map. Which indicates that much more water is still needed to improve the water shortage happening in our area.
Will It Last?
2016 did end on a good note in the matter of receiving rain, although it ended with more rain than snow given from the previous year. However, things turned around on the 3rd of January, which has been exceptional for both rain and snow. The Higher the Snow Water Content gets, the better things will look later on in the season. Which means that all that snow will take another strong hit to our drought situation.
As Of Now Where are We?
Speaking now on January 13th, 2017, all three of the river basins areas of the state have been improving with the Snow Water Content than in the end of December 2016. The Central and South Basins have been improving significantly due to the storm coming down south. Cold Temps. have also helped increase snowfall cover the overall volume of snowpack in the state. As mentioned in the Weather Network, here is a statistic given by them, "
The snow pack volume has improved considerably over the past week, and as of January 10th snow water equivalent values look very promising. All three, the Northern Sierra/Trinity (111%), Central Sierra (130%) and Southern Sierra (171%) are well above the normal values for this date and rapidly adding percentage values towards achieving the April 1st average, a date used to mark the start of the runoff season in the California Sierra Nevada's."
So What Should We Do?
So this is what we do know, We go out and take our families to enjoy this gift of snow we have been waiting for, for the past 5 years. Go out in your rain boots and jump in the huge puddles being formed, go out and take your motocross dirtbike and ride those muddy ramps. Get yourself a pair of snowboots out and learn how to ski or snowboard. Rent that cabin your family has been asking about and enjoy a nice cup of chocolate by the fireplace. Build that snowman you haven't built since you were a kid, have that snowball fight with your kids, and just go out and enjoy this winter.
