Drought conditions in California as of 1/1/25 (Photo: U.S. Drought Monitor)
Drought Conditions Return To Southern California Following Several Wet Years
Moderate level and above drought conditions currently encompass around 38% of the state
By Evan Symon, January 4, 2025 8:21 am
According to new data released by the U.S. Drought Monitor this week, California has officially returned to drought conditions in some parts of the state.
Between the late 2010’s and early 2020’s, California 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, atmospheric rivers formed above California for two winters in a row, dropping down record rainfall across the state. Snowpack levels in some areas eclipsed 250% of the normal levels, and some reservoirs had to have emergency releases thanks to some being filled to the brim. Dry conditions were averted, and, in November 2023, the state officially became drought free.
But things changed once again. Last year, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) predicted a dry 2025 thank to multiple factors including the return of La Nina conditions. While there was good news earlier this week in that snowpack levels were still above 100% for this year, that only pertained to Northern California. Rain failed to form, by and large, in Southern California in the past few months leading to the return of a moderate drought.
According to the data, only the extreme Southeast of the state is experiencing heavy drought conditions. Moderate drought is more widespread, extending from the Mexican border, up to Ventura County, and then curving up to the East reaching as far as southern Mono County. Northern California remains drought-free thanks to a number of winter storms that have brought precipitation to the area in the past several months.
The return of drought conditions in California will likely help spur the advancement of water projects in California this year. Multiple proposed reservoirs in the state have been held up partly because of wetter conditions masking the need for them in the state. And President-elect Trump’s promises of more agricultural water and wanting the state to reneg on water usage rules could be easier to fulfil with the backdrop of yet another major drought showing the need for it.
“The return of a drought isn’t great, but you mentioned the political implications,” said Jack Wesley, a water systems consultant for farms and multi-family homes, to the Globe on Friday. “A drought being the elephant in the room during all these water discussions later this year will be big. Trump’s people needed that extra cherry on top to challenge California this year on all the water usage laws, and this drought can help illustrate that. Same goes for reservoirs, water recycling programs, desalination plants, and anything else coming up. The need is going to be shown, and it’s something that the state really can’t deny.
“Let’s wait and see what La Nina really does in the next few months, but if I had to wager, those drought areas are really going to grow. Right now, the worst of the drought is only around Blythe. But by March or April, if the boundaries of a severe drought start encroaching on the Inland Empire, yeah, the state government is going to have a much harder time defending things like water usage policies.”
As of this week, a moderate to extreme level drought is currently affecting 38% of the state.
- Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs New Executive Order Going After ‘Ultra-Processed Foods’, Food Dyes - January 4, 2025
- Drought Conditions Return To Southern California Following Several Wet Years - January 4, 2025
- SF Mayor-Elect Lurie Selects Former SFPD Commander Paul Yep New Chief Of Public Safety - January 3, 2025
San Diego hasn’t seen a drop of rain this December & January, so far. Will my shrubs, trees, flowers get any in February, 2025?
A very wet year or couple of years, followed by dry years, is the pattern we’ve always seen in California. Katy Grimes, Edward Ring, and other Globe contributors have written extensively about the California water issue over the years. If we had built the promised and paid-for reservoirs and hadn’t dumped most of the snowpack into the ocean, we would always be in good shape for all of our water needs. But our Dear Leaders don’t want to do that, and have worked against doing that, for whatever reason —— and there are many possible reasons, most of them sinister, that have been speculated about, especially in recent years. Always interesting, when water is fundamental to human survival, how water has been used by dirty rotten scoundrel leadership (historically and in modern times) to control the population and manipulate the political agendas to those that are desired by the bad-guy-destroyer “leadership.”