Article:
Signs Of The
Last Times
As the U.S. Northeast emerges from yet another snowstorm, California has just concluded its hottest winter ever, registering average temperatures 4.4 degrees warmer than the state's 20th-century average. Warm temperatures and clear skies may strike a beleaguered Bostonian as the cause for celebration. But in California, the dry conditions mean that the state's drought has only grown more devastating. How devastating? Earlier this month, the title of a Los Angeles Times op-ed published by Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a professor at UC Irvine, got right to the point: California would run out of water in a year.
This headline—as Famiglietti himself pointed out—isn't exactly accurate: The one-year limit pertains only to California's reservoirs, which account for only part of the state's water supply. Nevertheless, the state is taking action. Last week, Governor Jerry Brown announced a $1 billion plan to aid communities most affected by the drought, and imposed restrictions on some aspects of personal use. With the state's snowpack at just 12 percent of normal, Californians figure to struggle more during the traditional dry summer months.
