Yesterday, we reported on how bad the wildfire situation in California has become. But even when they’re not fighting fires, California is battling with a truly profound water shortage. Reservoirs are dramatically depleted, and rainfall is few and far between.
According the the US Drought Monitor, more than 80% of California is in extreme drought. The maps below, courtesy of the Drought Monitor, collects data from 50 different weather indicators, and show that drought in California has been steadily on the rise for the past 4 years. You can see the situation escalate from just one speck of “abnormally dry” in 2011, to a sea of red “exceptional drought” spots in the present day. See the whole visualisation here.
