Autumn storms hit Northwestern US

Texas is out of drought for the first time in years. The state got about six weeks of repetitive rainfall and by Dec. 1, an average of 42.59 inches had fallen. That’s 11.5 more than the average.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, only 2.83 percent is experiencing abnormally dry conditions. Three months ago, more than half of the state was in drought.

This summer, the state was drought-free only from July 14 to 21 and most of the state has been under drought conditions since October of 2010.

The state of Washington is also moving out of drought, with the area west of the Cascade Mountains now entirely drought-free.

California is also on its way to a wet winter with the biggest storm of the season hitting the Sierra Nevada on Friday. The peaks got between one and two feet of snow last week, but the state is still almost all under some sort of drought condition, and has been for the last four years.

A strong El Niño has been predicted this year, but meteorologists believe the storm was the result of a jet stream, not El Niño. This year’s El Niño is expected to rank as one of the three strongest on record and will continue on until spring or early summer, according to the Climate Prediction Center.