California’s Drought: Is This Goodbye?

After five long years of drought in California, residents were literally showered with a pleasant surprise. Just in the past month, California experienced so much rain that many believe that the state is finally on the recovery road from the long-term drought.

Based on the Sierra Nevada snowfall, Northern California has had the heaviest snowfall in 22 years this year. Further data has shown that the recent rainfall and snowfall have relieved forty-nine percent of the drought. However, many environmentalists and scientists have been cautious in terms of jumping to conclusions about the end of the drought.

Jeanine Jones, the interstate resources manager in the Department of Water Resources, has commented in the Los Angeles Times that California is “about a third of the way into the wettest part of the season. [However,] we have to see what happens in the rest of the year.”

UC Davis water expert Jay Lund has also told Los Angeles Times that “in terms of surface water, most of California is no longer in [a] drought”.

In early January, the U.S. Drought Monitor announced an update on California’s drought situation. The data shows “much of Northern California out of drought conditions.” However, southern California continues to struggle with the drought.

According to Fox News, California’s underground recovery is very imminent as the underground supplies remain below normal. Especially in the San Joaquin Valley, “domestic wells have run dry and the land is sinking at an alarming pace as aquifers collapse.”

Although the recent snow and rain in California has brought relief to the now five-year drought, environmentalists have yet to say goodbye. The future is unpredictable; the only way California can continue on its recovery road is by the combined effort of its residents and nature’s will.