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We want this drought to be over

Not like that

This is less uplifting than people think because none of this rain went into the Sierras or Rockies. This means still empty lake reservoirs and not enough snow pack.

The drought is definitely over in the parking lot of my friends apartment complex. Anyone want to buy a Tesla that has water damage due to being completely submerged?

Should be fine just put it in a swimming pool of rice

The storms have brought much needed water, but we’ve been in drought so long that even a couple weeks of monsoon weather won’t make me believe we’re out yet.

Dont worry we will be back into a drought by summer.

Our local reservoir went from about 8% capacity to overflow predicted this weekend during this season. It's amazing how much rain we got. I don't remember it being like this since I think it was 1996 when we got like three 100 year storms in one year.

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read some studies that one rain storm in a month won't fix the drought, even a year of rain, takes decades of normal rain to go back to normal.

I am curious if the problem lies in the fact that although the res is filled again, this is temporary, and there is not necessarily an ongoing source of replenishment. Unless the snowpack is good? I haven't been paying attention.

The rain is great for our state. Maybe it could have been spread out instead of dumped all at once though.

Have you seen the news? Snowpack in parts of the Sierra’s are already ahead of their April averages.

They are getting snowpack and the reservoirs are being filled.

We get rain tomorrow in LA and I’m stoked for it! We very much need it.

"Wiggle your big toe"

You left the worst status of drought. There are still several other levels of drought you're in.

California is right next to the ocean. Just get some more water /s

You're now just in "moderate and serve drought". https://www.drought.gov/states/california

Grounds too dry. Water runs off of it like concrete. I’m guessing that if we want out, this is the way it’ll happen

Ok. Can we wash our own cars now. Please.

Probably work as well as any other telsa

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Luckily here in Colorado the western slope is getting higher than normal accumulation. That will help a lot come this summer. Refill the Colorado River at least part way.

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That's not how it works. The drought has been going on for 2 decades. California would need months if not years of consistent rainfall to truly exit the drought.

It will take years of these storms to recharge the much depleted aquifers in California.

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This is why California's climate plan includes water sequestration.

Yeah, it's cool and all for us to be out of a drought BUT WE'RE FUCKIN' DROWNIN' OVER HERE!

Snowpack in the mountains -- if my enviro science class knowledge serves me well -- is good because it means that reservoirs are replenished over the summer as snow in the lower altitudes of the mountains melts off and flows down river.

No snowpack means the reservoirs aren't continuously fed and thus any fullness will likely only last us this summer at best.

I'm sure I'm incorrect somewhere, so if any environerds wanna chime in, be my guest.

You are 100% wrong. The Sierra are WAY ahead in snowpack than "average" and dramatically ahead of recent years.

Mountain lakes/resevoirs are always lowest in winter as all the moisture is sitting frozen in feet of snow above.

The Salinas river valley is now the Salinas lake valley.

Almost no one can leave.

Reading is a good skill. Especially beyond headlines. They exited "Exceptional" drought. They are almost all still in other levels of drought.

Uh have you seen the snowpack in Mammoth?

We're not out of a drought. As the headline says, we're out of the worst category of drought. We're still in a drought. Crazy Right?

Definitely a good year up here at the headwaters

Now California don’t immediately forget what a drought is.

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Rockies are receiving more than 8+ ft of snow on their summits and a good amount of the moisture from this atmospheric river event made it past the Rockies.

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Shit, time to plant more almond trees.

didnt they get literal feet of snow from a few of these systems

It’s like God said… y’all prayin for rain… I’ll give it too you and then some!

I mean it makes sense. We'd probably need yearly rainstorms like what we're seeing now to really make an impact, right?

I live in the Sierras. This is not accurate.

That would be for the best. Unfortunately climate change causes weather to be more extreme. In both directions.

Heavy rain doesn’t really solve drought, it needs to be over long periods of time otherwise the water can’t be absorbed into the soil

Why do you feel the need to take perfectly good drinking water and throw it on the ground just so your car has shiny paint?

Niche but the 1662 Book of Common Prayer has prayers for ending a time of drought including words something like "send such moderate rain and showers" to just be clear that we don't want something too heavy.

Most of that water is sitting puddled in my backyard and on the back-upped storm drain on my street.

Very practical.

Exactly. It’s the ‘dead in 1 second’ vs ‘dead in 2 seconds’ problem. Still not out of the drought. At new years, they said we needed 19 more storms like that one to replenish the snowpack and reservoirs properly. Nature took it as a high priority todo and has been grinding.

I'm sure it's super effective too.

Ask "B is for Build" on Youtube. He just bought like 4 of them.

I've never tried it so I have no empirical tests yet.

"For now" just wait until next year when to cycles get worse.

Thank goodness! The reservoirs are starting to fill up (1/3+ now). The snowpack is 150% to 200% of normal in different part of the Sierras. The rivers are getting their fill. And the groundwater will start to replenish.

Hopefully, they can repair the broken levies, and it's sad for those that lost their lives during the rain storms.

I don't know who said you can't.

Maybe not the Rockies, but the Sierra got rain and snow. The snow pack is 150-200+% of normal. The foothills have got a lot of rain. The reservoirs are starting to fill, but we will still need more rain Feb.-April to fill them.

Same reason I take a shower and wash my dishes. I want my things clean. Also, the water from my tap is not "perfectly good drinking water". It's awful, smells bad, and is far from "perfect". It came from the ground, and it is going back to the ground. It'll be fine.

Just don't do the wrong thing or egg beaters will fall from the sky.

A guy we know has storage space and currently have a dozen late model teslas stored there with destroyed batteries. There's a high likelihood they're totals due to battery replacement costs.

To be fair, insurance usually totals cars in floods now. There were floods in the midwest years ago and after the cars were fixed they had nothing but problems with electronics thereafter.

Still not enough, keep the rain a comin'.

Exactly. This is good but not the end. It would take many good rains over many seasons to get all of California drought free.

I recall it being more about the way the ground retains moisture and how it’s been affected after being dry for so long.

Lots of places have bans on washing cars in the driveway. I'm guessing OP just doesn't want to take his car to a professional car wash place.

I wish there was a system where the water could be sent to the reservoirs and not flow back to the ocean.

I wish our city also allowed us to store rain water. It would be helpful in gardening and growing crops.

We're all still in one, just not in the "exceptional" category, only "severe" or "moderate" now.

Then utilities wouldn't make any money from you. Can't have that can we?

Careful what you asked for?

Yeah, temporarily.

But does he know about second drought?

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This is not uplifting news. This is dystopic news

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How about Elevensies?

Unfortunately, California's abject failure to build more dams or invest in proper hydrological engineering means reservoir capacity is woefully insufficient to extend the use of the water we have for the next dry spell.

We will starve without almonds

That would require environmentalists to allow California to build proper water infrastructure and capital improvements in the form of more and better dams. instead of using their control over the Legislature to browbeat the populace for any water usage and put farmers out of business.

Has anyone ever been fined for washing their car in their driveway? I'm on private property. Seems tough to fine me for using water I paid for.

Exiting "worst drought categories " does not mean exiting drought. Please do not assume California is okay because it's isn't in "extreme drought" now

Is there a way to store the excessive rain water and snow pack for later use?

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Yeah according to the article the entire state is still in massive & extreme drought. It's just not in the absolute worst category anymore

Isn’t it centuries/millennia?

Have the storms been in a location that will help Lake Mead?

This might be really stupid but are there tools like oil drills that can bore holes through dry ground before storms so water can percolate more easily? Is there a reason why doing this large scale would be a bad idea

Climate: "Look, people, we don't want no trouble. There's no water here so you should just leave.

People: "Fuck off we're stayin!"

Climate: (Grabs baseball bat...)"Now youse can't leave."

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As the article states: no.

That’s what reservoirs are for, so to some extent, yes.

Im not sure. These storms are huge though. If a 100 mile wide storm hits and you wouldn’t have the time or resources.

Even at its best, most of California is an arid climate, so some degree of drought is pretty standard and really isn’t a problem or concern.

Yeah, probably for 3-5 years minimum.

i would also like to hear the answer to this

Yah, this isn't good news because it can be used to spin a narrative saying that we don't need to worry anymore about water issues in the west

I'm sure there are but I don't live in a county that has enacted those rules. My county only says you have to have a nozzle on the hose so as to not have the water running down the drain the entire time you wash your car. Seems like a pretty fair rule to me.

The mindset of I can use all the water I want as long as I pay for it is fairly shortsighted in my opinion. Especially in a location with such bad drought issues. There were/are municipalities that nearly are out of water for drinking. To "waste" it to keep your car clean because you paid for it would be a dick move in my opinion.

It’s only temporary the lakes are NOT refilling. By summer it will be dry dry dry

I don't think storing your own rain water is that helpful in most of California. It rains for 5 months then doesn't rain much for 7 months. The time I need the water is in those 7 months and you would need an insane amount of storage capacity to make a significant dent.

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This drought is not over

Anyone who lives somewhere hot where it can go lengthy periods without rain, even if it is just a seasonal thing, should understand why this rainfall isn't going to solve the draught, even if the sheer amount of water that fell theoretically could have in a basic model that doesn't account for what happens during a lengthy period without rain.

Even just a few months here without rain and the ground is so hard, it becomes more like hardened clay than soil or dirt, and the rain doesn't seep into it quickly, meaning any winds, slopes, etc. make it just roll/flow away before it saturates the soil.

It takes times for the soil to become pliable and accept rain, and I don't know the actual science about it but I sure know that when it gets dry in the summer here, the first heavy rains don't feel like they've done much for how much rain there was, and it seems like all they've done is fill up pools.

By the time it has rained a few times and the ground gets more receptive to absorbing water, the rains definitely have a notably different impact.

That is after 1-4months of fairly dry weather, and I live somewhere with exceptionally high humidity. California has had many, many years of draughts far more extreme and very little humidity, so it is going to take far more than just a few torrential rains before they get anywhere close to being out of a draught. You can't expect the reversal of many years of something extreme to occur within just a short period of the opposite, at least not in most situations.

O my what will you do without almond milk for you $7 coffees?

Well, if the water is pulled from reservoirs that are unlikely to get filled during those 5 months when people would be primarily being using water they collected from rainfall, then it seems like it would have some positive impact.

This is from the point of view of someone who lives in a country where every. single. house. is constructed with roofs that catch, purify and store water for usage. Not a third-world country, a quite wealthy one.

During the summer people do have to purchase water during the few months with very little rainfall, but it isn't as if those months where we get to have full tanks due to rainfall, and get to have that water not be bogged down by chemicals, are having no positive impact. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I would assume any amount would help. If we were allowed I would get big tanks to store the rain water and use it for my trees and plants. Connect them to drip system and I wouldn't be using the drinking water.

It's not in the absolute worst category

So far ;)

Actually it's not though. The central valley is arid, and the bottom like 15% is desert, but that's not most of the state.

You got to love Episcopalian’s for covering everything.

Most of California's water consumption is from agriculture. A couple personal catchment systems would make little difference.

Its hard to understand until you've lived here how its like the Atacama desert for much of the year and then only modestly rainy for a couple months most years.

Many months are not "very little rainfall" but basically zero rainfall.

That just isn't practical. One of the big problems with dry ground is water likes to stick to other water molecules. They will work their way into the dry soil but it takes more time. A good example is comparing how much more and how much more quickly a slightly damp sponge will absorb water versus a completely dry one. If you were to pour water on both you'll see that most of the water will just run off the dry sponge.

If were to drill out a few holes in the dry sponge it's not going to really change much. The hole itself might become a small reservoir but it won't change the rate of absorption.

This would scale really poorly in the real world. You'd need so many holes drilled all over the place. It would be incredibly expensive and logistically impossible not to mention insanely dangerous. Having tens of thousands of open wells isn't a great idea.

What is the espoused reason that is prohibited where you live?

I'll take one of these every month Jan-Mar if that's what it takes.

Now it's up to the Californian government not to squander our water reserves...

Yep. Water likes to stick to water. If the ground has some moisture already the water is more than happy to go into the ground with all of its other water molecule buddies. If the ground is completely dry it takes more time so it will either pool up or just keep flowing.

Switch to oat milk like my wife.

Lmao yeah sounds about right.

Playing devil's advocate. This might increase the risk of sink holes or land slides.

I was going to go to Sequoia National Park on Monday, but the flooding and storm warnings changed my mind. Not to mention, I live in a direction that I access the park by the south entrance through a town called Three Rivers, and a landslide has demolished at least one road there.

As someone who had had wells drilled multiple time and lived off wells, I'll share my experience with the process. I am no expert though. Allowing surface water to run into a 300' well for example, would bypass the natural filtering process provided by the soil. Excrement (animal and otherwise), chemicals, etc, on the surface would be allowed to directly contaminate the water table. In California he water can only come out of the well, never back in. Check valves must be installed on the well head to prevent the water being pulled back out of your house and back into the ground by gravity. This is for residential only in my experience. Some water districts in California are experimenting with injecting clean water back into the ground as storage and to prevent salt water intrusion. Also well drilling is really expensive.

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Grand County has enough snow for everyone

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Some people are so picky. /s

washing dishes and your body has a direct impact on your health. washing your car is just a luxury. Also, fresh water is a non-replenishing resource. It goes to the ground, runs to the ocean and then takes nature years or humans a lot of money to use it again for anything. that is very wasteful. I'd recommend getting comfortable with a dirty car if you chose to live in a dry climate.

> Is there a reason why doing this large scale would be a bad idea

This isn't my field of expertise, but I have a couple times seen a demonstration where they pour muddy water through layers of soil, sand, and gravel and it comes out clean, which is basically how groundwater gets more-or-less safe to drink.

I suspect open bore holes would defeat some of those layers and cause groundwater contamination.

To add to this great comment, there are areas around LA designated as the "Ground Water Recharge Basins". This is basically big, temporary ponds to capture water before it gets to the ocean. This water is then naturally filtered into the ground and get pumped back up later for urban use.

https://www.pointblue.org/science_blog/attractive-and-beneficial-groundwater-recharge-basins-can-be-both-for-people-and-wildlife/#:~:text=These%20are%20natural%20or%20artificially,groundwater%20level%20in%20the%20aquifer.

You can see these at the north end of the 605 fwy, near the Santa Fe dam, as an example. Smaller, local projects aim to utilize the soil areas around public roads to channel and hold water so more can soak into the ground. They look like small riverbeds meandering around other landscapes. 10 fwy on ramps in the San Gabriel area seems to have this feature as well as the median on the upper Santa Anita Blvd.

Efforts are being made but probably more can be done.

Green infrastructure is going to be critical everywhere in terms of moderating extreme weather events

I paid a lot of money for my car and for the water I use once a month to wash it. I'm on my own property using the water I bought and I don't care if anyone is butthurt.

The recent weather is nice but it’s not a long term solution. They’ll be back in a drought soon as the rain stops

Lake Cachuma is gorgeous again

But a lot of people died so is it really that uplifting?

I'm no expert, but rain that evaporates must come down somehow? Maybe not always in the place, but everything can't be rained in Bangladesh, right?

That's why you plant trees (and don't tear up all your forests) because this is describing exactly what their root systems do. They can even reproduce on their own!

Yeah that's what happens when it rains for basically three weeks

Some places can't really support trees.

For now…

Yeah it'll be back, but for now it isn't

A lot of people died in a different way than they would have

a lot more people will likely live because of the extra water, no?

No that is actually where all the rain goes.

maybe

No, but that was never about the water, just to fuck with you

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Even if the snowpack is 200% above normal, if the rest of the season is dry, will that be any help?

You realize California is still in "moderate to severe drought," right?

absolutely I am aware of that. but you you think you know exactly whats coming next by saying by summer it will be dry dry dry. you have no clue. so I said maybe

This was a common DIY project especially back when we had a decade-long drought in most of Australia.

IBC tanks are a pallet-sized tank that is commonly used to transport fluids. You can acquire one (or several) of these for a few hundred dollars. Then you can just redirect your downpipe to the tank, put a filter in to catch leaves and other junk, install a hose fitting and you're done.

It wasn't even me that made that comment. Also, though it's true we can't 100% predict the future, it's also really, really stupid to say we have no clue. I'm sure you personally don't, but how do you think the weathermen predict rainfall on any given day? Would you say they ultimately "have no clue?" Unless California is drenched in an unprecedented biblical rainfall for months, it's extremely safe to predict how dry it'll be in the future based on how dry it has been for years.

After your comment I did some digging and looks like city won't care if you collect it in bins etc. You will need a permit if you make a reservoir on your property to collect rain water. I will start doing small collection now.

You’re all welcome.

I go out to LA and bring all the rain from coastal east coast with me.

I’m now back over where I belong but at least my team won the national title!

I really wish the news would stop publishing these articles about being out of the drought and all the water we are getting. It just gives people the excuse to use more unnecessarily.

And enters the U.S. Flood Monitor

The news of the recordbreaking snow pack in the Sierras has been interesting to follow. I understand now how the whole Donner party could have been stranded.

An article I read this morning on Accuweather said the current snowpack is greater than what they typically see in April at the end of the season. It seems to me that as long as they can hold onto it e.g. we don't get some weird warming spell that melts it all, they should be good for this year.

Are you even allowed to do that? I know that some western states prevent you from storing rainwater runoff because it "belongs" in the aquifers or some such nonsense.

Doesn’t mean jack if we can’t have normal rain fall yearly

Sounds similar to SB/SYV. Cachuma rose 40ft I heard.

Well they did a good job if that. I thought we were living in some socialist country …. Oh, wait

This is all well and good but so many counties in cali temporarily banned washing cars at home. You can take ‘em to a professional car wish but it’s overpriced and they are likely to scratch your car. Drought which is now resolving itself slowly.

How about no. USA is supposed to be about freedom. And if yiu don’t wanna wash your dishes, brush your teeth or take a shower to ‘save’ the environs, then more power to ya.

But I bought a nice car and I like it all shiny so I’m gonna wash it. Less frequently with the ban but still. I dgaf what happens to the water after it runs off my bright and shiny car>

I know this offends you, but why don’t you try worrying more about what you’re gonna do and less about what other people are doing.

too bad El Niño doesn’t happen every year

One good rain does not end a drought.

The soil filters the water. Drilling holes as deep as wells will contaminate the ground water aquifers. When a well is drilled a check valve is installed to make sure the water comes out and does not go in.

The idea has merit however. Large ponding basins can be found all over central to southern California. These collect runoff water in artificial ponds for the purpose of recharging the ground water (soaking in). Most of that water is lost to evaporation and there are steps being taken to limit that as well, like floating solar panels to keep the sun off and limit surface area.

When it rains too much in one year, there just isn't enough capture to make up for the several years of not enough rain.

Found the snowflake 😂 "bUt My fREedUmB"

I dgaf about the environment. It was fine millions of years ago, and it will be fine millions of years from now when humans may no longer walk the earth

Damn, that's a pity...