The recent storm that soaked Kern County was good for our catch basins, but was still not enough to get us out of a drought. National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Harty says some cities got more than two-inches last week but reservoirs and the snowpack are below normal. “We’re not depleted like we were the previous four, five years during the drought, we’ve got a decent snowpack up there, but it’s not up to what it should be.” Harty says Bakersfield is now at 70-percent of normal rainfall for this year while the Tulare Water Basin is only 64-percent full, but rain is still possible next month.

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