By Tara Lohan, from Water Deeply.

For the next few months much of the talk around water issues in California and the rest of the Western United States will be about how much precipitation falls, the water content of the snowpack and how temperatures will impact runoff in the spring. But it’s still too soon to tell whether 2018 will be a record dry year or whether some atmospheric rivers will race in to save the day. Last year California swung quickly from extreme drought to flood – which is whiplash for water managers but can also drive policy. (more)