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California’s prolonged drought has visible consequences such as depleted reservoirs and mandatory water conservation rules. But one of the more expensive effects could be buried deep in your electric bill.

The Pacific Institute updated its study on the hidden costs of drought and estimated that Californians have paid an additional $2 billion dollars in electrical bills over the last four years.

Wild weather swings across the globe are caused, in part, by the phenomenon known as El Niño. That’s the warming of the Pacific Ocean that leads to drought in much of Africa, and soaking rain and floods on America’s West Coast.

But in Southern California, it appears that El Niño is temporarily on hold.

California’s soggy start to winter had many predicting the end of the state’s record drought.

Myths and overstatements popped up like weeds after winter rain.
Some said El Niño’s powerful storms could wash away the drought by spring. Others said the state couldn’t officially declare an end to the drought until reservoirs filled up. And then there were questions about whether an official drought-ending declaration could only come from California Gov. Jerry Brown.

The weather, up to its usual surprises, brought summer sunshine to the Bay Area this week in the dead of winter at the same time that Sierra snowpack figures for Northern California were measured and found to be practically normal.

The snowpack in the northern reaches of the Sierra, which stretches from near the Oregon border to Lake Tahoe, was 99 percent of normal for mid-February, the California Department of Water Resources said. Statewide, the snowpack was 91 percent of normal.