Storms ease California drought as reservoirs fill up

[WorldNews]

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Several months of wet weather have dramatically eased California's years-long drought, replenishing reservoirs and parched aquifers and forcing state water officials to switch - at least temporarily - from managing shortages to avoiding floods. With rain continuing to fall following a deluge that brought 20 inches (50 cm) of precipitation to some areas this week, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains - crucial for storing water needed in the state's long, hot summers - is deeper and wetter than normal. "This is the wet winter that makes us cautiously optimistic," Ted Thomas, a spokesman for the California Department of Water Resources, said on Thursday.

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