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California sees another week of dramatic drought improvement. How does it compare to US?
California is more than 91% drought-free, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, after months of non-stop rain and snow yanked the state from its direst three-year-stretch on record.
California is now free of "severe," "extreme," and "exceptional" drought conditions—evidence that each week the state moves further away from its drought-stricken status.
The entire Central Valley, Central Sierra, foothills, the coast and most of Southern California have exited drought conditions.
The majority of the northern part of the state is drought-free except for Modoc and parts of Lassen, Trinity and Siskiyou counties. The desert region hasn't rid itself of drought quite yet as Inyo, Riverside and San Bernardino counties remain in "moderate" conditions.
Roughly 743,000 people remain in drought areas, according to a Thursday update from the U.S. Drought Monitor—an improvement over the 5 million in March.
Meaning, whether or not the drought is over is dependent on where you are and the status of your water agency's supply.
Roughly 34% of the state is abnormally dry—a significant decrease over last week's 43.8%. Nearly 8.8% remains in "moderate" status.
The information used in this interactive map, collected from the U.S. Drought Monitor, was updated Thursday with data through April 11. Here are the drought conditions in California. See where you land:
How does California compare to the rest of the US?
California is known nationwide as a drought state, but several areas across the U.S. have equally troubling water concerns—right now some places are worse.
Parts of the South and High Plains regions—Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas—haven't been so lucky.
Kansas is the most drought-stricken of them all and conditions have only gotten worse within the last seven days. More than 56% of Kansas is in "extreme" drought and roughly 43.5% is in an "exceptional" status.
Most of Florida is also in moderate to severe drought.
Drought is a moisture deficit—the amount of water the state has compared to the amount of water it can hold—causing social, environmental or economical effects, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
2023 The Sacramento Bee.
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