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Newest federal drought map places complete San Francisco Bay Space in ‘excessive drought’

The latest version of the US Drought Monitor Map shows increasingly dire drought conditions across California and the entire San Francisco Bay Area region is in “extreme drought”. Last week, parts of the nine counties region – including much of Santa Clara counties and parts of Alameda and San Mateo – were still in the less critical “severe drought”.

The map classifies the degree of drought on a color-coded scale from “unusually dry” (yellow) to “exceptional drought” (maroon). The May 6th map shows the severest “extraordinary” conditions along the southern portion of the state’s eastern border with Nevada and Arizona. “Extreme drought” (red) covers most of southern and northern California, and “severe drought” (orange) covers small parts of the state.

Climatologist David Simeral, the author of the map, said conditions in the Bay Area were not surprising given that the state has seen dry water for years in a row and he expects conditions to continue to deteriorate over the summer months. (The water year runs from October 1 to September 30, and this is how scientists measure annual rainfall.)

“When looking at total rainfall over the past 12 months, parts of San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa, Sonoma and Alameda counties all had record arid areas for that period,” wrote Simeral, who works for the Western Regional Climate Center, in an email . “If you look at other indicators, such as the reservoirs in your area and across the state, the situation doesn’t look good as the state’s largest reservoirs for this time of year after another bad year in terms of snowpack Marin County’s reservoirs are really in poor shape at 50% of the system’s capacity, while they are typically 90% full at this time of year.

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The most recent California drought lasted from 2012 to 2016, and at its peak in 2014, the entire state was affected – 100% – from severe to exceptional drought from May 13, 2014 to July 29, 2014, and 81.92% were covered by extraordinary to extreme drought from August 5, 2014 to October 28, 2014.

Today the severe to extraordinary drought is 92.88% and the extraordinary to extreme drought is 73.31%.

While conditions are not as severe as at the height of the last drought, they are moving in that direction and are rapidly worsening.

“The most alarming aspect [of the California map] is the fact that the conditions are currently in a very bad state and we are just beginning to move into the dry season, “wrote Simeral.” The situation will only worsen in the course of the summer months. It is difficult to decide which is the most alarming as there are several reasons for concern, such as: B. Impact on the agricultural sector, sinking reservoir levels, impact on ecosystem health, forest fire potential and impact on sectors that receive less attention, such as B. Recreation other than rafting and fishing. “

The federal government publishes a new map for the Drought Monitor every Thursday, showing drought conditions across the country. News organizations and Twitter users often share the latest version, with the card going viral.

With the worsening situation in California, the map has become a flagship for an impending drought as the amount of red indicating extreme drought increases every week. California has had two consecutive winters of arid conditions, and major reservoirs across the state are half full.

The Drought Monitor is a joint effort by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The weekly map is not a forecast, but reflects the rainfall of the past week.

While the map takes into account total rainfall, it indexes a variety of indicators including aquifers, river levels, soil moisture, satellite-based assessments of vegetation health, and much more.

The map is a drought measurement mechanism primarily used in agriculture and the USDA uses it as a basis for making decisions about financial support for agriculture. But the card is used well beyond the farming community.

“The weekly map provides an up-to-date snapshot of drought conditions at the national level and is an integral part of drought planning, preparedness and efforts at the national, regional and local levels,” said Simeral. “It is also used by the public and the media.”

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