California Becomes Drought-Free For The First Time Since 2020

According to new data released by the U.S. Drought Monitor this week, the entire state of California is officially drought-free for the first time since 2020.

Since the late 2010’s, California has had megadrought conditions across the state resulting in water restrictions in both urban and agricultural areas, as well as record lows in reservoir levels across the state. In 2022, many predicted an even drier 2023, with even more restrictions coming to help preserve water.

However, instead of another drought year, 2023 became the year of rain and flooding. Several atmospheric river events struck the state in January and March, bringing down record rain amounts, flooding, and in the mountains, near record snowpack levels. Because of the rain and subsequent meltwater, reservoirs have remained at or near full brim. Lake Oroville, for example, went from a 710 foot level in June 2021 to a 900 foot full brim in June 2023. Thanks to other rain events, Lake Oroville is still above the 800 foot mark in November for the first time in years and the ski season lasted until early August in some parts of Tahoe.

Drought-wise, the situation also rebounded dramatically in 2023. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) gave 100% state water project allocations for the first time since 2006 and, thanks to snowpack levels being 200%-300% of their average amounts, water flowed throughout the year. The U.S. Drought Monitor rapidly improved the situation in the state. Starting for 99% of the state facing drought conditions in October 2022, only half the state was still experiencing them by March. The most severe levels slowly disappeared throughout the Spring and Summer, and by the Fall, they were almost completely gone.

This led the U.S. Drought Monitor to report this week that California was now drought-free for the first time since 2020. According to the November report, 94% of the state is currently not feeling any dry conditions, with only 6% being listed as “abnormally dry”, which is one step below the first rung of the drought ladder. The areas of California still considered dry and the far northern areas of Siskiyou, Modoc and Del Norte counties up to around where Mt. Shasta is, as well as small parts of Riverside, San Bernardino and Imperial counties straddling the Arizona border.

With the DWR expecting 2024 to be another wet year thanks to El Nino conditions, it is likely that the state will even have “abnormally dry” conditions fade away as well. Water usage falling thanks to new measures taken during the drought and a new reservoir, the Sites reservoir, recently being announced to increase water storage in the state, are also expected to help accelerate California’s drought being kept at bay for the near future.

“California came back quickly after this,” said Jack Wesley, a water systems consultant for farms and multi-family homes. “The state passed a bunch of measures, is reducing usage, and is building new water storage across the state. They learned their lesson from the past few years, and are now more prepared for a bad drought once again. Still a way to go in terms of building everything up, but they’re in a much better spot now.

“This drought report is proof of that. It was the rain that turned the course, but everyone making an effort kept it up. States like Arizona and even Louisiana are worried about fresh water. It is still very much a concern for California going forward, but at the same time, you know, we’re seeing this. A lot of farms also died during the last few years too though. Remember that. We got to a good place as a state, but some, like farmers, paid the price when water wasn’t given to them and instead given to environmental projects. We can’t let that happen again.”

El Nino weather is expected to occur in California soon.