Is the drought over in Western US?

With all the rain on the west coast I wonder if the drought is over in the growing areas?

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Yes and no, looks like. :slight_smile:

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For the short term, in California the reservoirs are full and there’s a good snowpack in the Sierra. Long-term, though, it will take many wet winters to replenish all the groundwater farmers have been pumping out for decades.

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…and then there will still be periods of drought, right? I think there have been years too dry to keep up with the current demand since “they” started measuring.

On the other hand
heres-how-california-is-trying-to-hold-on-to-its-rainwater

I think there are new plans for storage.

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The interior West is still in deep drought. Lake Mead and Lake Powell are still well below normal levels, to the point where Hoover Dam has gotten close to being unable to generate electricity. That Vox article does give some hope.

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Fire warning today. :roll_eyes:

I wouldn’t bet on it. It is interesting to see a lake in Death Valley, though.

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California is historically a desert. Add astronomical population growth and we will always have a long term water shortage.

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"The combination of the abundance of rain and snow from the winter of 2022-2023, the state of the reservoirs, and what has happened this winter gives a high confidence that drought conditions will remain absent in California well into 2025, AccuWeather California weather expert Ken Clark said in a report published Monday.

The report called the blizzard “biblical.”

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