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More than 40 percent of California out of drought

Posted at 7:26 PM, Jan 12, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-12 22:26:14-05
More than 40 percent of California is no longer in a drought.
 
The new drought status comes after much of Central and Northern California got slammed with rain and snow over the past week.
 
The San Diego County Water Authority says it's not just mother nature that's helping out. 
 
"Here in San Diego county, because of the investments we've made in drought-resilient supplies and the improvement we've seen in the rainfall throughout the state, we no longer believe we are in drought emergency," Dana Friehauf, water resource manager with the SDCWA, said. 
 
Although they don't consider it a drought emergency, the western part of San Diego County is still considered to be in an extreme drought. 
 
"Even though we had no restrictions or no mandates in place since June, the residents and businesses of San Diego County still conserved about 17 percent so folks are still heeding the call to use water wisely and we anticipate that they will continue to do that," Friehauf said. 
 
Despite the state's improvements in drought status, people should still make every effort to conserve as much as possible. 
 
"Even though it looks like in 2017 we will not have a drought emergency, it is something that we continue to closely monitor and be prepared should the next year be dry," Friehauf said. "We have right now, in our storage reserves, as far as carry over storage, we have that full so that we're ready in case it is dry in the years to come."
 
The City of San Diego is on a "level one" drought watch, which means the region will have all of the water supplied needed to meet demands, even if we stay dry for three more years.