On Thursday, the U.S. Drought Monitor reported that 98.57% of California was "abnormally dry," and 62.71% was in "extreme drought," when only two weeks ago, it was reported that 27% was in "extreme drought." On Friday, a drought emergency was declared and the governor has asked residents to reduce water use by 20 percent. Declaring an emergency helps California receive federal aid and transport water resources within the state. This is crucial since crops grown in California use 77% of the state's water. In all of 2013, Los Angeles only saw 3.4 inches of rain- a fifth of the yearly average. Much of the state's water is stored in the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains, which melts in the spring and relieves drained reservoirs. However, snow surveyors have recently found that the snowpack is at 15-20% of normal levels for this time of year.
See the rest of the article here:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/18/3182581/california-extreme-drought-emergency/
No comments:
Post a Comment