2011–2017 California drought
Severe drought / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about 2011–2017 California drought?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The 2011–2017 California drought persisted from December 2011 to March 2017[1] and consisted of the driest period in California's recorded history, late 2011 through 2014.[2] The drought wiped out 102 million trees from 2011 to 2016, 62 million of those during 2016 alone.[3] The cause of the drought was attributed to a ridge of high pressure in the Pacific Sea—the "Ridiculously Resilient Ridge"—which often barred powerful winter storms from reaching the state.[4][5]
By February 2017, the state's drought percentage returned to lower levels seen before the start of the drought.[6] This change was due to an exceedingly wet pattern caused by atmospheric river-enhanced Pacific storms, which caused severe flooding.
In mid-March 2019, California was declared drought-free except for a small pocket of abnormally dry conditions in Southern California. This declaration followed a series of powerful Pacific storms during the first few months of the year, which coincided with the U.S. experiencing drought conditions in the fewest parts of the country since 2000.[7]