Our weather has undergone big changes Thursday!
We've gone from gloomy, stormy weather to beautiful sunshine!
We've seen big changes to our drought, too.
The latest Drought Monitor shows big improvements.
Looking at California 17% percent of the state is not on the monitor at all.
That's up from just 1% last week.
Moderate Drought has dropped to 49% of the state from 85% last week, and only 25% of the state is in Severe Drought, down from 33%.
No part of the state is in either Extreme or Exceptional Drought.
Here in Kern it's about a 50/50 split.
The western half of the county (technically 43%) including Bakersfield, is considered to be Abnormally Dry, while the eastern half (57%) is in Moderate Drought.
The improvements are no surprise, as most of the state has received above average precipitation.
A quick look at the data from Bakersfield, San Diego, Fresno, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Francisco show that all of those areas have already picked up more rain this water year than they typically get in a year, with traditionally rain March and April still to go.
The sierra snowpack looks great too, with the Northern Sierra running at 152% of average to date, the Central Sierra running at 197%, and the Southern Sierra running at 232% of normal.
Getting away from the drought and into the forecast, things are looking nice.
We're going to enjoy more sunny, calm conditions on Friday.
Temperatures will be in the 50s in the Valley, and in the 40s in the mountains, which means more melting.
Melting snow is one thing we do have to watch Thursday night.
Temperatures are expected to fall well below freezing in our mountain areas, so any snow that melted and is still on roads or sidewalks may turn to ice overnight.
