Is California's Drought Finally Over?

LOS ANGELES, CA -- Over the last week, blizzards blanketed Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Mountain with 12-15 feet of powder, and more snow is on the way in the coming week.

Long Beach saw record rainfall, and a week of wet weather brought the return of waterfalls that haven’t been seen in more than five years to Orange and Los Angeles counties. The Russian River overflowed its banks, and Lake Oroville rose more than 90 feet since December, reported the Los Angeles Times. More than a dozen flooded communities have declared a state of emergency following the early January deluge of storms.

Atmospheric rivers have funneled a series of storms across California bringing rainfall and snow levels to well above average. So far into the season, portions of Northern California have experienced their wettest season on record, and statewide, the snowpack is at more than 160 percent of its annual average, according to the California Department of Water Resources. Streams monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey were at or above record high flows this week.

Does this mean that after five years of of California’s most extreme drought, the state California is finally out of the woods? Yes and no.

Northern California is officially drought-free, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Central and Southern California are still pretty parched, and it would take another wet year before the region could be declared drought-free, according to the agency.

Parts of Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and Kern counties are still categorized as being in "exceptional drought” while the surrounding counties are in the slightly less critical “extreme drought” category.

“This series of storms has done more than make a dent in the drought, which is a huge relief,” Felicia Marcus, the head of the State Water Resources Control Board told the New York Times. “But it’s a little early to have a drought’s over party.”

Water officials and climatologists are cautiously optimistic. Even during the recent drought years, California had strong starts to the rainy season only to see the storms fizzle and the winter end with reservoirs as low as ever. Other times, unusually warm conditions caused the snowpack to melt too quickly to adequately replenish the state’s water supply.

But so far, the rainy season’s showing no signs of slowing down. The conveyor belt of storms is still going strong with significant rain and snow expected in the north and south next week.

“We still have three historically wet months ahead of us so there's still time for the snowpack to build and improve before it begins to melt, which usually starts to happen around April 1," State Climatologist Mike Anderson said in a statement.

City New Service; Bay City News Service contributed to this report