After seven long years, California has finally been declared drought free. As soon as the drought ended, the state was rewarded with a surge of butterflies and wildflowers that has been beautiful to witness.

U.S. National Drought Mitigation Center has stated that California had been in a drought since December 20, 2011. The long drought went on for 376 consecutive weeks. Thanks to an abundance of rainfall and snowfall over the winter, the amount of drought-affected state land was reduced from 97% in 2016 to just 57% today.

Currently, just 7 percent of California is experiencing “abnormally dry” conditions, but experts expect these parts of southern California to soon be drought free as well.

For the first time since Dec. 20, 2011, California is free of #drought. The state had experienced some form of drought for 376 consecutive weeks. pic.twitter.com/P4lKplUDQQ

— Drought Center (@DroughtCenter) March 14, 2019

So much rain has fallen this winter that there has been a breathtaking wildflower super bloom in certain parts of the state. Though super blooms typically occur once per decade, this is the second super bloom California has experienced in just a few short years.

The super bloom has caused a boom of the “painted lady” butterfly species, which have been on the decline in recent years. Thanks to the super bloom, millions of painted ladies have been migrating all over Southern California.

“The more plants, the more butterflies,” explained Art Shapiro, an ecologist at UC Davis and state butterfly researcher. “So any year you have a real big bloom in the desert is potentially a big year for painted ladies.”

What a difference 5 months make, snow capped mountains and plenty of greenery in the valley! You can also see water in the Yolo Bypass west of Sacramento from recent rains on the right image. #CAwx pic.twitter.com/J2Q9MpZVYh

— NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) March 14, 2019

Experts have said that it has been 14 years since they have recorded such huge numbers of painted ladies, with the previous record being around 1 billion painted ladies migrating south in 2005.