The monitor seems problematic to me in all sorts of ways. As you say, there's no reference to above average rainfall. Also, it should be base-lining on the med

The monitor seems problematic to me in all sorts of ways. As you say, there's no reference to above average rainfall. Also, it should be base-lining on the median result, not the average result. California has always had a few very wet and many dry years so the monitor usually shows drought. This serves developers and farmers who don't want to admit California is dry place and you should do projects taking a lot of water. And finally, the drought monitor measures dryness, not overall rainfall but it doesn't make this obvious. California's reservoirs are low but we have had fairly typical (median) rainfall for the last two years (and even had an usually humid spring and summer). The difference is increased heat increases evaporation and dryness and the map should make this distinction obvious.