Climate Changed! Sierra Nevada snowpack is biggest in 22 years: California’s drinking water now at 177% of historic average

Photo The Weather Channel

• 50% of California no longer suffering from drought
• California’s drinking water is now at 177% of the historic average, the biggest in more than two decades.
• Ends five years of drought

Climate changed!

California drought over!  After a month of huge blizzards and “atmospheric river” storms, the Sierra Nevada snowpack, a source of one third of California’s drinking water is now at 177% of the historic average, the biggest in more than two decades.

We have to go all the way back to February 1^st 1995 to equal the amount of snowpack now accumulated in the mountains.

It’s a breathtaking turn around after five years of punishing drought.

On Feb. 1, 2014, for example, the statewide Sierra snowpack was just 9 percent of the historic average, the lowest ever measured at that time of year and even worse than the dismal 1976-77 drought, when it hovered in the mid-20s.
More than 25ft of snow has fallen with a new round of storms set to roll into California bringing a further 3ft of snow by the weekend.

State officials though are reluctant to cancel the state’s emergency drought declaration from January 2014 until the full winter season is over.

50% of California is no longer suffering from drought although significant parts of Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley remain in drought.

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