19 April 2023
SONOMA COUNTY, CA — The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to end the local drought emergency it declared two years ago. At the same time, county leaders strongly encouraged the public to continue conserving water, citing increasingly volatile weather patterns in the region as a result of climate change.
Following a series of wet winter storms that dropped nearly 3 feet of rain on Santa Rosa in three months, the two main reservoirs that supply Sonoma County exceeded their normal storage capacity this year for the first time since 2019. Combined, Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino held 372,000 acre-feet of water when winter ended March 20, the most ever going into the dry season, according to a news release from the county. Just one acre-foot is equal to approximately 326,000 gallons, which is enough to meet the annual indoor and outdoor needs of three average households in Sonoma County.
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