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Environment

Drought dwindles to less than 9% of California

A car crosses Enterprise Bridge over Lake Oroville's dry banks on May 23, 2021, left, and the same location on March 26, 2023, in Butte County, Calif.
Noah Berger
/
AP
A car crosses Enterprise Bridge over Lake Oroville's dry banks on May 23, 2021, left, and the same location on March 26, 2023, in Butte County, Calif.

Only remnants of California’s three-year drought remain after winter’s epic storms.

The U.S. Drought Monitor reported Thursday that areas of drought cover less than 9% of the state, down from more than 99% at the Oct. 1 start of the water year.

Those areas, in the far north and southeast, are surrounded by areas of abnormal dryness amounting to just over 25% of the state.

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California’s winter was marked by numerous atmospheric rivers that dumped enormous amounts of rain and blanketed mountains with an extraordinary snowpack.