Slight progress shown in weekly drought update

The U.S. Drought Monitor’s weekly update shows California is making slight progress. Although El Nino has brought an onslaught of rain throughout the state, experts say it will take time for the impact to become apparent.

Current reservoir conditions are as follows:

• Shasta Reservoir: 55% compared to its historical average of 80%
• Trinity Lake: 30% compared to its historical average of 42%
• Lake Oroville: 47% compared to its historical average of 70%
• Folsom Lake: 62% compared to its historical average of 117%
• New Melones: 17% compared to its historical average of 29%
• Don Pedro Reservoir: 42% compared to its historical average of 61%
• Exchequer Reservoir: 15% compared to its historical average of 31%
• San Luis Reservoir: 37% compared to its historical average of 45%
• Millerton Lake: 43% compared to its historical average of 67%
• Pine Flat Reservoir: 23% compared to its historical average of 46%
• Perris Lake: 36% compared to its historical average of 44%
• Castaic Lake: 32% compared to its historical average of 28%

The severity of drought levels improved slightly over the last week. The current drought intensities throughout the state, based on percentage are:

• 0.22% has no drought, compared to 0% last week
• 99.78% is abnormally dry, compared to 100% last week
• 94.77% is seeing a moderate drought, compared to 95.26% last week
• 81.92% are in a severe drought, compared to 86.13% last week
• 61.4% are classified as an extreme drought, compared to 63.9% last week
• 38.48% are in an exceptional drought, compared to 39.41% last week