Advertisement

Suddenly, half of SLO County has emerged from drought conditions. Here’s the latest look

Early January rainstorms have carried much of San Luis Obispo County out of drought conditions, although the region remains abnormally dry compared to historical conditions.

Drought conditions across California have either improved or remained the same compared to one week ago. The U.S. Drought Monitor, in a weekly update published Thursday, reports the state remains free of both “extreme” or “exceptional” drought for the second week in a row.

Much of California’s Central Coast, which was devastated by the severe storms, has exited moderate drought conditions and is now “abnormally dry.”

The western half of San Luis Obispo County is in “abnormally dry” conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. That means there are still some lingering water deficits and pastures or crops have not fully recovered from the extremely dry conditions.

The eastern half remains in a “moderate” drought as it had less rainfall from the January storms, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. This leaves crops and pastures stressed, and streams, reservoirs and wells lower than historical norms.

The U.S. Drought Monitor provides a big-picture look into drought conditions across the nation. The partnership between the the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration bases its drought classifications on data analyzed weekly that considers rainfall amounts, stream flows, reservoir levels and snowpack.

Is California still in drought?

A move in the needle, while it may be consistent, means all that rain has improved drought conditions — for now.

Roughly 99.4% of California remains at least “abnormally dry,” while majority of the state or nearly 89.6% of the land is in “moderate drought” status. About 32.6% of the area is in “severe” drought.

This week’s numbers show improvement compared to last week.

While “abnormally dry” conditions status didn’t fluctuate from 99.36%, “moderate” conditions decreased more than two points. Better news: “Severe drought” status decreased more than 10 points.

The data used in this interactive map, collected from the U.S. Drought Monitor, was updated Thursday. Here are the drought conditions in California. See where your area lands:

Snowpack levels

Between Dec. 26 and Jan. 17, National Weather Service wrote on its Twitter page, California absorbed an average of 11.47 inches of rainfall. At least 15 feet of snow fell in the Sierra Nevada.

According to the Department of Water Resources, 49 stations in the Central Sierra Nevada are reporting at 217% of normal on Thursday.

Peak snow season is generally on April 1. As of Thursday, snowpack throughout California is 130% of average.

When will it rain again in San Luis Obispo County?

California has taken a much need break from the rainy weather — but it will return.

The National Weather Service has predicted that San Luis Obispo County could see up to a quarter-inch of rain on Sunday evening through Monday morning.