Though much of the United States has been experiencing a cold, high precipitation winter, California has had extreme drought and fire conditions. The State Water Project announced the state reservoir will “effectively be closed for business.”
“This is the most serious drought we’ve faced in modern times,” Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board said. “We need to conserve what little we have to use later in the year, or even in future years.”
“Today’s action is a stark reminder that California’s drought is real,” said Gov. Jerry Brown. “We’re taking every possible step to prepare the state for the continuing dry conditions we face.”
“The exceptional drought extends from north to south across parts of 11 counties including, southeast Santa Cruz, far southern Santa Clara, San Benito, Merced, western Fresno, eastern Monterey, eastern San Luis Obispo, western Kern, western Madera, Kings and southwest Tulare,” notes weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce.
“Truly staggering was the fact that some locations picked up less than half the precipitation in 2013 of their previous record dry year, including Santa Cruz, Calif. (4.78″ vs. old record of 11.85″ in 1929) and the north San Francisco Bay suburb of Kentfield (7.80″ vs. old record of 20.30″ in 1939),” writes weather.com meteorologist Jon Erdman.