Yes fellow Californians, the awful drought is still here – but at least it did not get any worse over the last couple of weeks…
The LA Times reports on the latest from The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:
According to the latest assessment released Thursday, more than 80% of California continues to suffer extreme drought conditions — a figure that has remained unchanged now for roughly two weeks. Things had been on a steady march toward worse, pushing more than half of California to the most severe level of drought for the first time since the federal government began issuing regular drought reports in the late 1990s.
Despite recent thunderstorms, 58% of California continues to experience “exceptional” drought — the harshest on a five-level scale. Nearly 82% of the state, meanwhile, is experiencing “extreme” drought, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map.
CA drought: 99.85 of state still in severe to exceptional drought levels http://t.co/zSd30QUtMl US Drought Monitor pic.twitter.com/FPCqkWWBn0 — NIDIS (@DroughtGov) August 14, 2014
Remarkably, according to the map, there is .15% of California that is not in severe to exceptional drought. Where is this magical, watery place?
Currently, California’s major reservoirs total 59% of the historical average, which still tops the worst recorded state average levels of 41% which occurred during the 1976-77 drought – a time before technology allowed Palm Springs residents to one up each other in the sport of drought shaming.
