The drought in California is real. It is sever. And it isn’t going to go away soon.

I set this page up to show  you the affects of the drought and give information concerning it so you can make intelligent water choices in your life.

First, we have to realize that there is a problem.

Below are two images from e360.yale.edu. The top one shows most of California as it appeared from space in January of 2014. The second shows what it looked like just a year before that in January  of 2013.

You should notice all of the white on the second image. That’s snow. Snow melts, becomes surface water, and fills lakes, reservoirs, and replenishes our ground water. You should also notice that the top image is BROWN that is due to the lack of snow. No snow means no water. No water equals drought. This dramatic satellite image should bring home the reason why.

Second, we need to look at the affect of the drought.

Below are images of different California lakes/reservoirs. Most of them are from mic.com. In each of them, you can see affect of the drought on the water level. To be honest, most of the images are from spaced three years apart (2011-2014), but we’ve been in a drought situation for longer than that.

You can see that the water level in the lakes and reservoirs has dropped substantially. Can it be undone? Of course, but it will take several years of above average rainfall and that doesn’t appear likely in the near future.