Relentless storms leave big dent in California’s historic drought

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) — A relentless sequence of storms has left a dent in California’s historic drought.

This 12 months might go down within the report books because the wettest ever for the golden state, however all this water may very well be a double-edged sword.

The most recent storm to hit the state introduced heavy rain and snowfall to communities throughout the Valley and foothills.

“Mountain, foothill areas, noticed two inches of rain, and lots of the Valley has seen roughly an inch of rain,” defined Antoinette Serrato, a meteorologist with the Nationwide Climate Service in Hanford.

At the beginning of this 12 months, the drought monitor confirmed the vast majority of California in extreme to excessive drought.

On the finish of February, we noticed vital enchancment together with areas of no drought.

Now, solely 36% of California is in drought, in comparison with 43% final week.

As of this week, the one portion of Central California experiencing abnormally dry to extreme drought is within the Sequoia Nationwide Park and Forest.

The most recent drought report does not embody any of the rainfall we noticed within the final 48 hours.

“Sadly, the opposite aspect of that’s that it is rather attainable for soils to get overly saturated, and that makes them primed for rockslides, landslides, and and flooding,” mentioned Serrato.

Soils in distinctive drought areas, will be hydrophobic, which means they do not soak up water very nicely.

Whereas drought maps present most of California in restoration, Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen says it’ll take years to totally recharge our water desk.

“From a groundwater provide, we have needed to over depend on that through the excessive drought we went by and that does not recuperate in a single day,” Jacobsen mentioned.

The Sierra Nevada is on the verge of surpassing the second-highest snow whole for a complete winter season.

Whereas that is largely excellent news, with not less than two months nonetheless to go, there are considerations for spring time flooding.

“We’re hopeful we see dryer occasions forward that can enable us to make the most of the water that we have had thus far and put it to nice use right here within the Valley,” Jacobsen mentioned.

In the case of farming, water is not the one fear.

We’re nonetheless ready to search out out the impacts of our different climate extremes this winter, together with hail and freezing temperatures.