California is experiencing drought for a third year. Intensity levels have already increased to “extreme drought” in 82 percent of the state. This number has remained relatively stable for the previous three months. There has been marked increase, however, in “exceptional drought” areas–From 25 percent of the state three months ago, the area increased to 36 percent last week and this week jumped to nearly 60 percent.
At the end of June, for California’s 154 intrastate reservoirs, storage stood at 60% of the historical average. Storage has fallen to 17.3 million acre-feet.
California calculates a yearly need of 11.6 million acre-feet storage. This means that California is short more than one year’s worth of reservoir water.
This is the third year of drought in California. California’s topsoil moisture and subsoil moisture reserves are nearly depleted. Rangeland and pasture-land are now rated 70 percent very poor to poor, and continue to deteriorate.
Recently, wildfires have burned thousands of acres of vegetation in northern and central California. The Sand fire, which raged over an area north of Plymouth, burned over 4,000 acres and 66 structures, including 19 residences.
Conditions are not appreciably better in northern than in central or southern California.
Current drought intensity in California is still short of the historic 1977 drought, when interstate reservoirs dropped to 41 percent of average.
By James Haleavy