No More Drought??

California is slowly escaping the drought

In the years 2011-2017 California experienced on the most persistent droughts in history. After our abnormal dry period, California, in most parts, have come back from being in a drought.

With a limited supply that is usable, clean water is a challenge to get nowadays. That is exactly what happened during a six year period, California was in a record-breaking drought with 41 percent of it in the most severe conditions.

In 2013, there was a 34 percent decrease in rainfall, affecting many natural cycles. Rivers and streams were extremely low, threatening species of fish. It made the vegetation extremely dry, decreasing our food production, which is worrying because California is mostly an agricultural state.

Wildfires didn’t help during the tough years either, on average California has over 73,000 wildfires each year. With decreased water supply, it was difficult to contain and keep the fires out. Burning millions of acres of land in the process.

As a state during the drought we were warned to limit the time of running water, take less or shorter showers, they even made water served by request. As a state we really were trying to save every drop.

But now our worry is over because in mid-march of 2019 the state of California has been declared drought free. In 2019 the amount of rainfall was enough to add over 580 billion gallons of water to reservoirs, streams and lakes.

Although we a drought free for now, it is predicted that another severe drought could happen again in the future. It could be more common in the year 2050, most likely in Southern California.

As long as we use our water resourcefully we shouldn’t be in that deep of trouble, but no one knows what mother nature will throw at us, we just have to be prepared.