California’s Drought Still Remains, Though
It may feel weird to look at a man standing on a flood street and read that drought still remains. Yet that’s exactly the situation the state finds itself in. The West has suffered through a megadrought unseen in at least 1,200 years. A Category 5 atmospheric river can make a dent, sure. But the region is still in an extreme precipitation deficit.
To give you a sense of the depth of the drought, consider this: Oroville Reservoir dropped so low this summer that it could no longer generate hydropower. This storm alone caused its height to jump by nearly 10 feet (3 meters). Yet it remains nearly 100 feet (30 meters) below where it was at this time last year and 150 feet (46 meters) below where it was in 2019. Simply put, there’s a lot of ground, errr water, to make up.
