The dusty hills of Griffith Park are sprouting shades of green. In Pasadena, water is streaming through arroyos that only weeks ago sat caked and dry. And from the perfect vantage point downtown, the distant San Gabriel Mountains are gleaming with crowns of snow. After one of the driest years in recent memory, Los Angeles — and California — is off to a notably wet start. … But while all that moisture gave a much-needed boost to statewide drought conditions, … experts emphasized that California will need to maintain this wet trend in order to truly climb out of its dry spell.

Related articles: 

• San Francisco Chronicle: Satellite images show stunning change for Lake Tahoe before and after December snowstorms
• Tahoe Daily Tribune: Snow pack measurement reveals we’re far from drought recovery, according to CDWR
• KABC: Yes, all the rain from last week’s storm got us out of the most extreme drought category.