Water Online has written an article discussing the three year drought that’s impacted the Western U.S. and whether this event is beginning to end. The article breaks down the status of the drought by region, before moving to discuss longer term impacts.

Overall, the takeaway is that various precipitation events in the past year have largely reduced the surface water deficit seen across multiple regions (the most impacted regions being California and the Great Basin, the least impacted being the Pacific Northwest), but groundwater reserves will require more good years to truly recover. This is important due to the long term impacts of drought on ecosystems. While the chance of forest fires has been reduced, it will still be a concern for the West if a hot, dry summer occurs again in the near term. Read more at Water Online.