Is California’s Drought Over? Water Providers Still Predict Shortages Next Year

December has delivered a powerful punch of storms to California. But the wet weather comes with a dry dose of reality: The state’s largest reservoirs remain badly depleted, projected water deliveries are low, wells are drying up, and the Colorado River’s water, already diminished by a megadrought, is severely overallocated. Throughout California, urban water managers are bracing for a fourth consecutive drought year.