{"id":503034,"date":"2026-01-09T05:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T05:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/503034\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T05:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T05:32:13","slug":"california-completely-drought-free-for-1st-time-in-25-years-after-winter-storms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/503034\/","title":{"rendered":"California completely drought-free for 1st time in 25 years after winter storms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">SAN FRANCISCO &#8212; Incredible news for California&#8217;s water supply entering the new year &#8211; not a single square mile of California is categorized as dry for the first time in 25 years, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA hsDdd DbOXS oklLN GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Map of California's Drought Monitor showing dryness from North to South.\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl vBqtr KrDt itslR WAUrb hakZw HlUVI \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/18372902_010826-kgo-droughtmonitor-img.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Map of California&#8217;s Drought Monitor showing dryness from North to South.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">As of December 30, 2025, California is effectively out of drought across almost the entire state, where 0% of the state&#8217;s total area is experiencing drought conditions, according to the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/california-drought-monitor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">California Drought Monitor on CalMatters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Final storms in December 2025 pulled nearly 100% of the state out of drought.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">As of January 8, 2026, measurements showed virtually no dryness remaining, marking an &#8220;exceptionally wet period&#8221; that has filled the state&#8217;s reservoirs to a healthy level. This news is the culmination of several years of strong rainfall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Golden State was first declared drought-free in years in 2023 after a winter deluge of storms and atmospheric rivers soaked the state in November and improved forecasts for 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">We have not had a similar scenario where there was not a single dry patch on that map for California since December 2000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">This means if you&#8217;re younger than 25, you&#8217;ve always been living in a world where California is either entering or recovering from drought.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Current systemwide reservoir capacity sees seven of 12 major state-owned reservoirs at 75% or higher capacity.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO &#8212; Incredible news for California&#8217;s water supply entering the new year &#8211; not a single square&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":503035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[225565,50,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-503034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-225565","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115863509106264859","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}