Calif. drought is over in roughly half the state
Heavenly Mountain Resort has enough snow to provide skiing well into spring. Photo Copyright 2017 Carolyn E. Wright
By Paul Rogers, San Jose Mercury News
Hammered with record rainstorms and blizzards, nearly half of California is no longer in a drought, and the rest saw dramatic improvement over the past week, federal scientists reported Thursday.
Overall, 49 percent of the state is now drought free, the highest level since April 2013, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
A year ago, only 5 percent of the state was classified as not in drought conditions.