A blizzard that pummeled California over the weekend has brought good news regarding the state’s drought outlook.
The massive storm started late last week and brought more than 100 inches of snow to some high-elevation areas. The blizzard followed a slew of atmospheric rivers that brought a deluge of rain to the state. The weather has drenched California this winter, and several cities have already surpassed their annual average rainfall amounts. AccuWeather meteorologists expect that the influx of water has eliminated one of California’s biggest problems, at least temporarily.
“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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AccuWeather long-range expert Paul Pastelok told Newsweek that meteorologists looked at the amount of water building in reservoirs and water use estimates.
California battled exceptional drought for years, a situation that fueled wildfires and put the state’s water situation in a dire state. However, after an abnormally wet winter in 2023 and this year, many of the state’s reservoirs are in good condition, the soil is saturated, and the snowpack ensures that the state’s water supply will remain stable throughout the year.
Six of the state’s most important water reservoirs are at or near their capacity, AccuWeather reported: Lake Shasta, Lake Oroville, Folsom Lake, Don Pedro Lake, Millerton Lake and Castaic Lake. The latter is the only reservoir that hasn’t exceeded its historical average, but it is currently at 98 percent.
Some of the reservoirs are so full that officials had to release billions of gallons of water from them this winter to make room for more. Releases were conducted at Lake Shasta and Lake Oroville in Northern California.
Although recent storms have brought good news in regard to the drought outlook, meteorologists expect El Niño to end this summer and be replaced by La Niña in the fall. The shift could influence the amount of time California remains free from drought.
El Niño and La Niña are two climate patterns that greatly influence the Earth’s weather. El Niño usually means a wet winter for the Southwest, and it contributed to the high number of storms hitting California this year.
“La Niña winters generally don’t bring a lot of precipitation to Central and Southern California,” Pastelok said.
However, sometimes that’s not the case. If La Niña isn’t very strong, Pastelok said, next winter could be another wet one. If that’s the case, California could remain free from widespread drought beyond early 2026.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.