The state's water storage and snowpack levels have risen sharply since the end of December as a result of more than a dozen atmospheric rivers that have doused the state in January and March as well as the heavy snowfall across the state in February.
State Climatologist Michael Anderson said Wednesday that California has seen "pretty fantastic" drought-busting weather patterns so far in 2023, which have also helped saturate the state's previously arid groundwater basins.
However, he said, the state is still partly at the mercy of conditions in the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to some 40 million people in Southern California as well as Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.
As for a concrete answer on whether the drought is over, Anderson offered an answer that boiled down to "no, but kind of."
The state climatologist said one of the biggest challenges for the state’s water supply is the Colorado River Basin, which has been in a drought since 2000.
The state is expected to see a wet weather lull into the weekend, albeit with a low chance for showers before another atmospheric river potentially arrives between March 19 and 22. Long-term forecasts are also uncertain.
