California appears to be heading back into another drought due to severely dry conditions in three counties that hold one-quarter of the state population. The previous drought ended less than a year ago when a rainy winter eliminated the five year chronic drought. In addition, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada is less than a third of normal.

“February is the peak season for snow accumulation,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA who studies Western weather patterns. “Every week that we don’t reverse this trend from here forward, it’s going to be that much harder to get to where we want to be by the end of the season.”