This past winter in California has been especially wet, but all for a good cause! Because for the first time since 2011, the state is officially drought free, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor's map.
“The reservoirs are full, lakes are full, the streams are flowing, there’s tons of snow,” said Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist with the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “All the drought is officially gone.”
This great news comes 376 weeks after the last time that California was considered to have zero drought, by a University of Nebraska monitoring group. But don't start wasting water now! A drought can creep right back into the state before you know it... Just one year ago, only 11% of the state had normal conditions.
“Dry conditions can easily creep back in,” Blunden added. “That's why we adjust the map every week. The conditions change — and they can change fast sometimes.”
Read more about California's history of drought on the LA Times.