Long term drought impacts continued to decrease through a wet December, with above average precipitation for the third month in a row. This was especially true for the northern Sierra, where the 8-Station Index was at levels previously seen in 1982-83, the wettest water year on record. At the end of December, compared to historical averages, Lake Shasta was 118%, Lake Oroville was 91%, Folsom Lake was 83%, and Don Pedro was 113%. New Melones continued to lag behind the other significant area reservoirs and was 46% of normal.
On December 21, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced an increase in its estimate of 2017���s State Water Project (SWP) allocation to 45%, up from the initial estimate of 20%, thanks to December storms making a impression on the drought.
Governor���s Drought Task Force continued to take actions that conserve water and coordinate state response to the drought. Federal, state, local, and utility partners continued to coordinate and remove dead and dying trees that pose the greatest risk to public safety. CAL FIRE and its partners had removed more than 423,000 trees in 10 counties, inspected and cleared dead trees along nearly 52,000 miles of roads and power lines, created approximately 1,300 acres of fuel breaks, and treated more than 26,000 acres.
The U.S. Drought Monitor showed some improvements for the month, with the above normal rainfall and increasing snow pack in the mountains. The western Sacramento and central Sacramento Valley and adjacent Coastal Ranger were downgraded from D1 Moderate Drought to D0 Abnormally Dry.
Groundwater aquifers continued to recharge more slowly than the surface reservoirs. Groundwater is the source of at least a third of California���s water supplies and remained significantly depleted in many areas
Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency for the entire state of California January 17, 2014 and this continued to be in effect. Governor Brown issued an executive order on May 9, 2016 that built on temporary statewide emergency water restrictions to establish longer-term water conservation measures, including permanent monthly water use reporting, new permanent water use standards in California communities and banned clearly wasteful practices such as hosing off sidewalks, driveways and other hardscapes.
Local Emergency proclamations remain for Colusa, Calaveras, El Dorado, Glenn, Plumas, San Joaquin, Shasta, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tuolumne, and Yuba counties. The cities of Live Oak (Sutter County), Lodi (San Joaquin County), Manteca (San Joaquin County), Portola (Plumas County), Ripon (San Joaquin County), and West Sacramento (Yolo County). Drought task forces remain in Lake, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Tuolumne, and Yolo counties to coordinate response to the drought.
The State Water Resources Control Board announced that urban Californians��� monthly water conservation was 20.6 percent compared with water use in December 2013, an increase from both November 2016���s 18.9 percent savings and December 2015���s 18.2 percent statewide savings, when state-mandated conservation targets were in place. The State Water Board stressed the need for continued conservation in Northern California.
The state continued to supply food assistance to those impacted by the drought, along with California Disaster Assistance Act money for those who have lost drinking water due to dry wells. In June 2016, Governor Brown approved an additional $254.7 million for the 2016-17 budget to continue the state���s response to the drought to aid
in emergency drinking water for communities, emergency food assistance, enhanced fire protection, environmental and wildlife assistance, assistance to communities to help dispose of the dead and dying trees in high hazard zones for public safety issues, and the continued statewide awareness campaign.

Drought in NORTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
From 01-DEC-16 00:00:00 to 31-DEC-16 23:59:00 (PST-8)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: State Official

The Household Water Supply Shortage Reporting System indicated there were some homes without well water due to dry wells. In December there were 228 in Stanislaus County, unchanged since November. There were 8 in San Joaquin County, 3 less than in November. Many rural communities in the Northern San Joaquin Valley were also still receiving food assistance as a direct result of the drought.