(Bloomberg) -- A slow-moving storm causing flooding and power outages in northern California would need to be replicated at least five more times for meteorologists to declare an end to the state’s historic drought.
The wind and rain, dubbed #hellastorm on Twitter, produced widespread flash flooding, closed schools and canceled flights in the San Francisco Bay Area and brought blizzard conditions to mountain passes near Lake Tahoe on Thursday before heading for Southern California.
Three years of below-normal rain and snowfall have left reservoirs at less than a third of capacity. Water for the nation’s most productive agricultural region was rationed. At least five similar storms would have to follow to replenish the deficits, said Alan Haynes, service coordination hydrologist at the California Nevada River Forecast Center in Sacramento.
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