“We are still in a drought, but we are no longer in the-worst-snow-pack-in-500-years drought,” said Felicia Marcus, the head of the state water board. “We’re still waiting for the science community to diagnose why this particular El Niño didn’t go according to script,” Mr. Anderson said. Tim Quinn, the executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies, applauded the rollback, saying statewide restrictions failed to account for communities that had already taken steps to save water. The state’s reservoir levels reflect the geographical disparity of El Niño. Some meteorologists are predicting a weather pattern next year known as La Niña, the opposite of an El Niño, meaning that rainfall levels are significantly below normal.

Source: New York Times May 18, 2016 19:43 UTC