About 10 percent of California now in moderate drought status, scientists say
The latest map by the U.S. Drought Monitor brings some bad news for California: After a virtually rain-less start to February, nearly half of the state is either “abnormally dry” or at a “moderate” drought level.
The monitor shows a pocket of the Central Valley and southern Sierra Nevada, from Tuolumne and Mariposa counties, through Fresno County and extending south through parts of Kern County, are in D1, or “moderate drought,” status, the first recorded drought-like conditions of the year for California. The stretch makes up just under 10 percent of the state’s land area.
An additional 37 percent of the state is categorized as “abnormally dry,” based on data measured Tuesday and published Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor, which bases the numbers off readings from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other federal agencies. The abnormally dry area includes most of the Sierra Nevada range and the Central Valley, the Sacramento area and most of the Bay Area.
The Drought Monitor estimates a population of more than 1.3 million Californians in drought areas.
One week earlier, just over 34 percent of California was abnormally dry, but there were no drought-like conditions mapped anywhere in the state.
The good news, as The Sacramento Bee reported earlier this week, is that typically takes more than one dry winter to create a full-brown drought emergency. And thanks to heavy storms last winter 2019, the state’s major reservoirs still have plenty of water; Lake Oroville and Folsom Lake, for instance, were still at 94 percent and 92 percent of their historical averages, respectively, by the end of Wednesday, according to the California Department of Water Resources.
But climate experts also told The Bee earlier this week that the dry winter thus far in California could heighten wildfire risk this summer, due to lack of moisture in the soil. A legend beneath the drought map says D0 conditions can bring the start of “active fire season.”
The city of Sacramento has received zero rain so far in February and there’s little immediate relief on the way, according to the latest National Weather Service forecasts. The driest February on record in Sacramento saw 0.04 inches of rain.
As of Thursday, statewide snowpack in the Sierra was just 58 percent of its normal level for mid-February, according to data from the California Cooperative Snow Surveys. The southern Sierra, where drought conditions have been observed, is only 38 percent of normal. Normal for the date is 53 percent, the state Department of Water Resources
