SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Recent storms bearing some of the heaviest snow and rain to hit Northern California in decades have helped bring a dramatic turnaround after more than five years of drought, which covered the state just a year ago.
Here are key numbers to know as the record dry spell eases:
u35 INCHES: Total rain in the last 10 days along California’s central coast, according to the National Weather Service
u67 PERCENT: Snowfall in the Sierra Nevada as a percent of average on Jan. 3, according to the weather service
u161 PERCENT: Snowfall in the same mountains as a percent of average on Thursday
uMINUS 8 MILLION: Amount of water California’s reservoirs were off the average, by acre-feet, or annual supplies for a household, in 2015
uPLUS 1.2 MILLION: Amount of water the reservoirs were off the average in January 2017, according to Jay Lund at the University of California, Davis
u2 YEARS: How many years’ worth of normal rainfall was missing from the worst-hit parts of California ahead of January’s storms, according to hydrologist Claudia Faunt of the U.S. Geological Survey
u174 MPH: Blizzard winds in Sierra Nevada on Jan. 8, measured at Squaw Valley, according to the weather service
Huge shift: Snowfall goes from 67% to 161%: