While we had some rain on Sunday in the Bay Area, there's no way that it was enough rain to make a difference in the looming drought situation that is about guaranteed this year. There are some cities in the Bay Area like Santa Rosa that were hoping for a half inch of rain and they ended up getting a lot less! Assistant Santa Rosa Fire Marshall Paul Lowenthal says that they are likely to declare an early fire season. That announcement may come in just a few weeks!
Current numbers show that 85% of California is in severe, extreme, or exceptional drought. Last year only 12% of the state was at that same level.
East Bay MUD will vote today (Tuesday) on declaring a stage 1 drought. Andrea Pook says they would ask for a 10% voluntary reduction of water use district wide but would not impact the cost of your water. She said a lot of their water supply comes from the Sierra foothills which is currently at about 50% of average yearly precipitation.
Carolyn McArdle talked about it on the air. Listen below...