The California drought is nothing new, after five long and very dry years. The period between late 2011 and 2014 were among the driest years California has seen yet, and, in following years, there have been high hopes of heavy rain to quench the reservoirs as seen in the 2015 anticipation of an El Niño year. Unfortunately, all hopes have been for naught — until the recent influx of heavy rains that acted as 2017’s debut. California has received 20 inches of rain and 10 inches of snow so far, causing the percentage of California that is drought-free to go from 3 percent to 42 percent in just two weeks.

However, this does not necessarily mean that the drought is over. 28 percent of California is still in extreme drought; nonetheless, there has been an undeniably significant improvement compared to the previous year where 69 percent of the state was in extreme drought. There are plenty of good signs in this area, as 2017 has been the wettest winter California has had in years. Reservoirs such as Lake Shasta and Oroville, both major state reservoirs, have gone from bone-dry to being filled to 85 percent and ¾ of their capacities. Studies show that Northern California is glaringly drought-free, however, they also show that Southern California is still quite a bit behind.

The most telling sign is that California remains in a state of emergency, and this will likely not change until officials receive the final amounts of snow and rainfall towards the end of the winter. So official water conservation notices are likely not going anywhere, at least for now. Water and reservoir experts will still be carefully monitoring California’s water supply for the next year or two, and since it is very unlikely California will get a series of storms of this caliber for a while, if past weather trends are anything to go by, they might as well.

If it is not clear yet: yes, California has had a nice, wet winter that has made it significantly less thirsty than before. The drought is not over, however, and it is likely it might take a little while longer before it finally is.