Last weekend's atmospheric river event is making a difference for some of the North Bay's drought situation.
The U.S. Drought Monitor says Marin, Sonoma and Mendocino counties have mostly crawled out of the Exceptional Drought category. That is the worst of the five-category scale. The counties moved down one step in severity to the Extreme Drought category, which covers most of coastal California. Overall, Extreme Drought for the state fell by 5% from 88% to 83%. Exceptional Drought fell from 46% to 19% for the state. There was no change for other drought conditions: Abnormally Dry, Moderate Drought and Severe Drought, according to ABC10.
“It was a great weekend for us water nerds, and water managers” says Brad Sherwood of the Sonoma County Water Agency. “This storm is actually bigger than we forecasted and thought.” A few more storms like this one and Marin could very well find itself with reservoirs that are completely recharged. In Sonoma County, it will take more rain and more time, but the first step was getting the ground saturated enough that it could carry runoff to the reservoirs.