Long term drought impacts continued to decrease through the month of January, as a series of strong atmospheric river storms brought very wet conditions. This continued the wet pattern which began in the Fall; and resulted in significant improvement to the drought situation, especially to the northern Sierra. The northern Sierra had the third wettest January on record (8 Station Index). At the end of January, Lake Shasta was 115% of normal, Lake Oroville was 123%, Folsom Lake was 80%, and Don Pedro was 129%. New Melones Reservoir improved, though continued to lag behind the other significant area reservoirs at 71% of normal.
The U.S. Drought Monitor showed significant improvement over the area, with only the northern San Joaquin Valley in D1 Moderate Drought, and portions of the Motherlode in D0 Abnormally Dry, Those areas were in D3 Extreme Drought and D2 Severe Drought in December. All of the rest of interior Northern California, including the northern Sierra, the Sacramento Valley, the Delta, and the southern Cascades were in the 'None' category by the end of January.
Groundwater aquifers continued to recharge more slowly than the surface reservoirs, though the DWR Water Data Library showed signs of improvement in some 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, San Joaquin, Shasta, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tuolumne, and Yuba counties. Plumas County no longer had a Local Emergency Proclamation. 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) continued to have local emergency proclamations . 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 20.5 percent in January, an increase from the 17.2 percent savings in January 2016, when state-mandated conservation targets were in place. The State Water Board stressed the need for continued conservation since statewide snow pack remained below average despite the wet storms
The threat of dead or dying trees continued, with on-going tree-removal programs at the state and federal level.
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.

Drought in NORTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
From 01-JAN-17 00:00:00 to 31-JAN-17 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 Jnaury there were 228 in Stanislaus County, unchanged since December. There were 8 in San Joaquin County, unchanged from December. Many rural communities in the Northern San Joaquin Valley were also still receiving food assistance as a direct result of the drought.