SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — California’s 2016 water year ended Friday, marking yet another dry year, according to officials from the Department of Water Resources.
This year is the fifth consecutive dry year with low snowfall, officials said.
The “water year” runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 each year, according to state water officials.
Officials said that 2016’s water year is listed in the record books as “dry” statewide, despite that parts of northern California experienced above-average precipitation.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center sees slightly better than even odds that La Nina conditions will develop this fall and winter, though that does not necessarily mean there will be substantial rainfall, however.
Sixty percent of the state remains in severe or extreme drought, water officials said.