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More and more of California is sliding deeper into drought.
The US Drought Monitor says more than 40% of the state is now in the second-worst Extreme Drought category. The rest of the state is in the Moderate-to-Severe drought range. Officials say Extreme Drought is affecting Northern California from Sonoma County north into Humboldt County, as well as most of the northern Sacramento Valley to the Oregon border, while the southern San Joaquin Valley from Modesto to Bakersfield is also in Extreme Drought.
MEasure have begun once again to try and combat the state drought conditions - earlier this week, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed banning businesses from watering their lawns now that more than 93% of California is considered to be in severe or extreme drought. “We are definitely very much at the tail end of our wet season in California,” Jeanine Jones, drought manager with the California Department of Water Resources, told me. “We are not expecting any significant amount of additional precipitation — certainly not something that would make any difference for the drought.”
As of right now according to state reports, all of California’s major reservoirs are currently at below-average levels, and the state’s snowpack was reported at 39% of what it typically is this time of year, according to state data. Governor Newsom has not announced mandatory water cuts for Californians at this time, but faces increasing pressure to do so.