Winter Rains Not Enough To Boost Calif. Drought Outlook
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Despite heavy rainfall last month across Southern California, the statewide drought is expected to linger for at least a few more months and may even worsen before summer, meteorologists said Friday.
KNX 1070's Jon Baird reports the new forecast from the National Weather Service indicates a complete lack of rain over the past month could extend the drought through April.
Despite rain and snow blanketing much of the state, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountain range is only 40 percent of normal levels, according to the National Weather Service.
David Miskus with the U.S Climate Prediction Center said that while the Southland is in a little better position because of the recent rains, these conditions could conceivably go on indefinitely.
"The snowpack needs to be built up, the rain needs to continue again, time is running out and it's not looking very promising," said Miskus.
Last year, some meteorologists were optimistic that developing El Niño conditions would dump even a fraction of the more than 200 percent above-normal rainfall the water-warming phenomenon brought to Southern California in 1997-98.
Now, according to Miskus, those hopes have all but dried up.
"Same thing happened in 2012, it looked like it was starting to heat up there and then it just fizzled," Miskus said. "It looks like this one's doing a very similar thing."
Rain has nearly halted across California in January, which is usually the wettest month of the year.
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