Name: California entirely out of drought for first time in 25 years
Uploaded: 2026-01-12T16:27:56.485Z
Duration: 1 min 42 s
Description: The green grass on San Diego’s hills is a sight for sore Californian eyes, and not just here in Southern California.

The green grass on San Diego’s hills is a sight for sore Californian eyes, and not just here in Southern California.

San Diego

California has emerged from drought conditions for the first time in a quarter-century, with widespread rainfall leading to green landscapes and increased ground moisture. This development is expected to reduce fire risk in the short term, particularly in southern California, where fire season is typically year-round.

Despite the improved conditions, officials urge residents to use this period to create defensible space around their homes, as fire risk could return when vegetation dries out. The state experienced historic fires and extreme drought just a year prior, but now trends toward more normal weather patterns.

California entirely out of drought for first time in 25 years

All this green is a sight for sore californian eyes. It's now the first time in 25 years the entire state has been out of a drought and this extra moisture in the ground can help in the short term when it comes to fire season. Something crews say is pretty much year round in southern California to the green grass. The plants are green and everything starting to grow again. The start to 2026 was a rainy one. Oh boy. Excessive rainfall flooded areas across the county, bringing new growth weeks later, quite the opposite compared to january of 2025. So we're coming off of last year where we had the historic historic fires in Los Angeles counties. That was an extremely dry period. We had an extremely strong Santa Ana that was able to fan that that fire very quickly. Santa Ana winds are stuck in San Diego's forecast wind warnings and advisories issued by the National Weather Service over the weekend. Gusts even reached speeds close to 80 miles an hour on sunday in wind prone spots across the county that combined with warm dry air would normally elevate our fire risk. But there's a factor keeping that extreme threat at bay. Now we're starting to trend towards more of a normal weather pattern with with our precipitation for the first time since december of 2000. The golden state is completely drought free. A stark change from this time last year. That means less fire danger. We're not completely out of the woods yet, but we are in a lot better spot than we were a few months ago. So while we have the green hills, Cal fire says use this time to work on creating a defensible space around your home. So when the green goes away, your property is protected. Ava Kirschner abc 10 news.

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