California’s drought guidelines continue, cliff jumpers take advantage of raging torrent

Waters are raging at McCloud Falls in Northern California and these daredevils are enjoying the torrent after heavy snowmelt this winter. 

But despite the dramatic increase in snowpack this year that has primed the state for epic adventures such as these, regulators extended the emergency drought guidelines and the prohibitions against wasting water will continue. The decision moved forward at the start of the month and will be reassessed later this spring. 

"We may see all other drought signals improve, but we may see those aquifers and well levels still lingering for quite some time just because of how slow those deep water supplies take to replenish," remarked Climatologist Brian Fuchs who is with the National Drought Mitigation Center. 

These images were taken 3 years apart and show dramatic snowpack increase and greening of vegetation in California. Courtesy of NASA satellite imagery.