With big storms having already moved through California, another powerhouse moving inland now (see satellite image below), and more strong storms likely in the start of February, we might be able to watch the long-term drought disappear before our very eyes.
Eastern Pacific satellite image from January 20, 2010
That’s how the weather often works–after an extended serious drought in the Southeast, it ended quickly with heavy rain last year into this year. In fact, this region has had too much rain.
California, obviously, has had too much rain in too short of a period of time as well, but this is how California (and all of the Desert Southwest) typically breaks a drought–quickly and dramatically. The short-term problems–which are often life threatening–benefit the long-term water needs of the region.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the drought monitor over the next couple of weeks to see how much it changes just from this one set of storms.
For today, we’ll start with looking at the drought monitor before the storms arrived (image from January 12, 2010):
Western drought map for January 12, 2010; courtesy of NOAA and friends
I’ll update the drought map when the map for January 19, 2010, comes out–and again next week, which will better represent changes from the current set of storms. I will update it again after the storms in February.
–Paul Yeager
