California Drought Ends, But Controlling Santa Monica Refuses to End Restrictions

State water managers poked rods into drifts as high as tree branches to measure the snowpack. They found far more snow than at the height of California’s more than five-year drought, when the measurement was done in almost-bare mountain meadows. “The winter storms across California are a welcome relief from five years of record low rainfall for Los Angeles, but Santa Monica’s groundwater, our major supply of water, has been impacted and can take years to rebound.