By Jeannette E. Warnert
The California rainy season is off to a good start, raising hopes that the ongoing drought will be snapped, reported Aaron Davis in the East Bay Times.
"We've seen a sigh of relief from a lot of growers that are right at about half of their total seasonal average and we are halfway through the season," said Paul Verdegaal, UC Cooperative Extension viticulture advisor in San Joaquin County.
The rain is helping flush salts away from the grapevines' rootzones and refill the aquifer, which has been depleted in some areas due to the years-long drought.
The National Weather Service's Seasonal Drought Outlook shows areas of Northern California already free from drought, some areas where the drought designation remains, but is improved, and areas where drought designation removal is "likely."
Half of the state's annual rainfall comes in December, January and February. "This is only mid-December .... So we still have a ways to go in our wet season and Northern California is well above average," said Jeanine Jones, deputy drought manager with the California State Department of Water Resources.