The rains that poured last week flooded streets and submerged cars throughout Los Angeles, but the sunny skies and higher temperatures this week remind us that a week of monstrous rains doesn't eliminate the drought that is affecting SoCal and all of California.
According to LA Curbed, even when California got more than double what it normally sees of rainfall in January, it's still an inch and a half short of normal for the whole water year so far. Even when the total rainfall in January is well above what L.A. would have in a normal year, the water this year is about 1.62 inches short of normal, according to the NOAA.
The drought in California is four years in accumulation, and probably will take several wet Winters in a row, to get the water back to normal and the reservoirs filled.
On a statewide level, it's still pretty dire. The dark red color on the United States Drought Monitor means "exceptional drought," and it covers a vast portion of the state as of this month. The Drought Monitor noted that, "The consensus from California experts is that recovery will be slow, and many more storm events are needed through the rest of Winter to really put a dent in the drought."
The steady dose of rain in the past week doesn't indicate that California's four-year drought is nearing an end. But the downpour of heavy rains across the state shows optimism, as reported by the Cal OES News Room.
While the Northern Sierras in December of 2014 was saturated with more precipitation than at the same time this year, the temperatures were colder this December through January, turning rains into snow in the Sierras.
"Although this is a favorable start to the year, there are still three to four more critical months that will determine how much rain/snow will fall and accumulate during the wet season," as written in an e-mail by David Miskus, a meteorologist with the Climate Prediction Center and a Drought Specialist.
