California Water PSA (35 seconds)

With California facing one of the most severe droughts on record, Governor Brown declared a drought State of Emergency in January 2014 and directed state officials to take all necessary actions to prepare for water shortages.

The 2012–13 and 2013–14 winter snowpacks were among the lowest recorded in the last 100 years. 2013 shattered low precipitation records everywhere in California, with very little measurable rain falling from January 2013 into mid-November 2014. Municipal districts in the northern and central parts of the state, including Sacramento, enacted water rationing while over half a million acres of Central Valley farmland were not planted.

The drought affects more than California, including most of the US, parts of Mexico, and central and Eastern Canada.

The drought has inflicted, and is expected to continue to inflict, catastrophic economic ramifications for the affected states.

Other exceptional California droughts occurred during 1928-34, 1976-77, 1987-92, and 2007-09.

Produced by: George Alger