Charts show why California’s recent rain won’t end drought
California just received more precipitation in the last three months of 2021 than it got in the previous year. The mountains are heaped with historic amounts of heavy snow. But the rain had no sooner given way to sun than state regulators issued new rules forbidding water-wasting practices such as hosing down sidewalks and driveways. What’s going on? The short version is that, although 33.9 trillion gallons of water have fallen on the state since Oct. 1, that’s not enough to wash away our tenacious drought. Here are some graphics to help to tell the story.
Related articles:
- San Francisco Chronicle: Sunny skies — and no more drought relief — on tap for next week in Bay Area
- California WaterBlog: Continued drought early in a possibly wet year
- Lompoc Record: Blog: Storm door locked to Central California, but conditions could change quickly