United States Sets Drought Record

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — It's been three years since a snowless snow survey was a sign of how drastic California's drought had become. Now, a record-breaking winter is turning that upside down, and not just in California.

The wettest winter on record has filled our reservoirs to capacity and left snow as far as the eye can see in the Sierra. The winter has been good to California, but it's not just the Golden State.

Satellite images show how a bone-dry river system has swelled into a series of rushing torrents. Across the nation, the country has hit a record low of drought coverage. Only 1.1 percent of the nation is in severe to exceptional drought, the lowest since the birth of the federal Drought Monitor in 1999. That bodes well for other states that rely more on rainfall than reservoirs.

As California heads into the dry months, it will start relying on runoff from the Sierra snowpack. The snow levels have been flirting with records, and the final snow survey is set for Monday—something that will be a much whiter sight than 2014.