While December was drier than normal, each of the other months has exceeded averages. There's a lot of water in the environment, and rivers and lakes are filling up as the rain is running off. There is even flooding in some areas. The soil moisture is about 100 percent recharged in most areas by now, and I imagine the shallow aquifers are already beginning to get some of the recharge. Thomas said the speed at which aquifers recharge depends on the type of materials the water must move through.
Water flows through sandy soil much faster than it moves through clay.
And as it moves through the ground, it is naturally filtered. Aquifers recharge very slowly. Sometimes the movement of water is measured in inches or feet per month or per year. The more saturated the soil is, the quicker these formations tend to refill. What you get underground depends on the rain and amount of water on top of the ground.