It seems a tautology that rain reduces drought. Yet our water picture is so surreal that the National Weather Service just said, “. . . local rainfall in Southern California does not necessarily help the drought situation.”
How so? It hinges on the meaning of “the drought situation.” We are involved in two drought situations.
One is related to the below normal rainfall we’ve received on our very roofs in Southern California over the last few years.
The other is about the below normal rainfall most of the Western U.S. has received over the last few years, especially Northern California and the Colorado River watershed.
You’d think the amount of rain falling on our roofs — the local drought situation — would be the more important of the two, but then you’d be forgetting where the water from our faucets originates. The water we use comes mostly from Northern California and the Colorado River. The rain that falls on our roofs goes basically unused and is treated like sewage, and that’s why the NWS can rightly say that the deluge we received in mid-July had little to no impact on our drought situation.
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