California has fully emerged from drought conditions for the first time since December 2011, and just 7 percent of the state remains abnormally dry, scientists said Thursday.

Rain and snowstorms that slammed the state this winter helped rebuild the snowpack, filled reservoirs and improved soil moisture, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Moderate spring temperatures are helping the snowpack stay intact and avoid early melting.

A few areas in the northern and southern reaches of the state are still not considered normal, and parts of San Diego, Orange, Riverside, Imperial, Siskiyou and Modoc counties are drier than usual, the monitor’s weekly report said.

Across the state, though, California has come a long way since the worst of the drought — the summer and fall of 2014 — when nearly every county was tagged with an “extreme” or “exceptional” drought designation.

“It took months of these storms coming through to recharge the precipitation to the point where we’re confident the state is no longer in drought,” said Jessica Blunden, a climatologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Back to Gallery California is drought-free for the first time in nearly 8... 7 1 of 7 Photo: Brittany Hosea-Small / Special to the Chronicle 2 of 7 Photo: David Paul Morris / Special to the Chronicle 3 of 7 Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images 4 of 7 Photo: Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle 5 of 7 Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 6 of 7 Photo: Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle 7 of 7 Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images













The state’s recovery has been slow, Blunden said, because of the damage the drought did to reservoir levels. Getting back to normal took years and the process isn’t done in some cases. San Diego County reservoirs are still just 65 percent of capacity.

This time last year, 11 percent of California was in the normal zone of dryness, and half the state was still in some form of drought. But today, 93 percent of California has reached the normal classification, and no part of the state falls into the drought category.

Precipitation gains from the United States’ wettest winter on record have extended into March. Six percent of the country is in some form of drought, compared with 10 percent a week ago. Nearly 5 million people now live in drought-affected areas, compared with almost 9.4 million last week.

Until last week, a sliver of Siskiyou County, which takes up about 0.6 percent of the state, was still in the “moderate drought” category.

“We were able to remove the last little bit of drought up in Northern California,” Blunden said.

More than just rain goes into determining whether a particular city or state is in a drought, as well as the severity of drought, Blunden said. Parameters include reservoir levels, runoff, groundwater, soil moisture, stream flow and irrigation in addition to the amount of precipitation.

“The changes that we’ve seen in California we’ve seen all across the West, which is great news,” Blunden said. “That’s not to say drought can’t come back. Droughts can come back very quickly.”

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov