California & Santa Barbara Drought Update
California may be out of the ‘Extreme Drought’ thanks to the recent rain storms, but there are still parts of Santa Barbara and Ventura County still in ‘Severe Drought’.
The two counties, which have been the epicenter of drought in California in recent weeks, received much needed rainfall.
“Over 8 inches of rain was reported at two stations near Santa Barbara and over 6 inches at Ojai (6.97 inches) and Thousand Oaks (6.59 inches) in Ventura County,” according to the Drought Monitor report.
Take a look at the side-by-side map comparison below of just how much one wet year made a difference.
FEBRUARY 2016 CA Drought Status
FEBRUARY 2017 CA Drought Status
Notice that Santa Barbara is one of the two areas that are still in a substantial drought condition. We have continually received much needed rain over the past few months, which has replenished a large amount of Santa Barbara’s water supply. Gibraltar Reservoir & Twitchell Reservoir were completed depleted at one point, while Lake Cachuma and Jameson Lake were both near 10% capacity or less. With the recent months of regular rain storms, the reservoirs have substantially increased in capacity. Below is the current reservoir statuses of Santa Barbara County:
Water streams ran full which helped refill the depleted reservoirs in the area. Lake Cachuma rose 24 feet in just one day, according to the Drought Monitor report.
The Drought Monitor reported added that as of today, March 3rd, Lake Cachuma is at 46.7% of capacity, Jameson Reservoir is at 54.4% capacity, Gibraltar at 99.8%, and Twitchell is at 34.6%.
“Even though the reservoirs were responding quite favorably, they still have a long way to go before we can classify this area as drought-free,” said the report.
For information on the local drought conditions, water-use restrictions, and water conservation rebates/benefits, Please visit HERE