The drought is over in northern California after up to 20 inches of rain and 12 feet of snow

Over the past week, storm after storm has pummeled central and northern California, denting if not erasing a multi-year drought. The Federal government’s U.S. Drought Monitor published Thursday morning declared the northern third of the state is now entirely drought-free. Reservoirs are filled and streams are flush with water – at or near record flows. “With more than a foot of precipitation falling on the Sierra Nevada (locally 20.7 inches at Strawberry Valley, CA), most major reservoirs were at or above its Jan. 10 historical average,” the Drought Monitor reported. The amount of rain and snow so far this year in unsurpassed in historical records in the Northern Sierra, San Joaquin, and Tulare basins. The Northern Sierra tallied 26 percent of its annual precipitation in the first 10 days of January alone...more