Maps reveal extent of CA drought

My wife(Australian) and me(Canadian) are in California at the moment. She is constantly commenting on the fact that despite all the drought warnings and conserve water posters everywhere we constantly see people watering their grass and fields to the point of forming large puddles of water. Like everywhere we have been there has been constant watering of plants. As someone that has lived through drought it has been really confusing to her.<p>It really seems like no one there believes their is a drought or at least it isn&#x27;t changing anyones personal actions.

I&#x27;ve been to Lake Shasta, and the drought is apparent and appalling. The shoreline has receded a few hundred feet.<p>This report [1] shows that in 2010, Palm Springs was using 736 gallons of water per residential customer per day.<p>It almost makes me sick.<p>Sources: [1] <a href="http://www.water.ca.gov/urbanwatermanagement/docs/Report%20to%20Leg%20on2010%20UWMPs-6-25-2012.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.water.ca.gov&#x2F;urbanwatermanagement&#x2F;docs&#x2F;Report%20t...</a>

I read the comments. Don&#x27;t read the comments.

There are plans to build a desalination plant in the Bay Area [1]. This and other plants in CA could help water supply in populated areas.<p>The water districts in CA have two problems: 1. They are not connected well so water cannot easily be transfered from one district to another. 2. The reservoirs cannot sustain an extended drought.<p>[1] <a href="https://portal.ebmud.com/our-water/water-supply/long-term-planning/bay-area-regional-desalination-project" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;portal.ebmud.com&#x2F;our-water&#x2F;water-supply&#x2F;long-term-pl...</a>

Slightly off topic, but I was hoping these were satellite images and not just shaded maps. Also showing 180 individual images seems like an awful way to present the data, maybe an animation or have a time slider?<p>Regardless, it&#x27;s an interesting dataset, and I honestly didn&#x27;t know that the drought was so severe, having only heard it mentioned in passing.

&quot;The desert grows, and woe to him who conceals the desert within him.&quot;<p>Nietzsche

I remember a &quot;conserve water!&quot; flyer that was set on the tabletops in the UCSC dining hall. It helpfully pointed out that, since California was experiencing a drought that year, we shouldn&#x27;t be using so much water.<p>It <i>also</i> gave the actual rainfall statistics for the current and past year (approximated but basically accurate in my memory): that year, we&#x27;d received 20% of the average annual rainfall. The year before, 210%.<p>This basically convinced me that emoting about california droughts is just something people do because it makes them feel good.