Northern California saw the biggest improvements in the Drought Monitor released on Thursday.  Beneficial winter rain and snow has helped moved the extreme Northwest coast out of a historic drought.

In January, all of the state was in some drought category. The most severe category of exceptional drought covered 43 percent of the state. That number is now down to 32% coverage. Looking at the two most severe categories combined, extreme and exceptional drought,  the coverage has dropped from 69 percent to 55 percent.