California is having its rainiest water year since record-keeping began in 1895 — a phenomenon that has lifted tens of millions of residents from drought, according to government records. According to Thursday’s U.S. Drought Report, only 7% of California remains in moderate drought conditions and 1% remains in severe drought. The state’s drought outlook is a turnaround from this time a year ago when 99% of California and 37.1 million of its residents endured some category of drought. As of Thursday, only 10.2 million Californians were living in some form of drought, according to report authors. The drought turnaround began in October, when rainfall hit four-times the annual average for that month.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 09, 2017 20:20 UTC