On April 1st, California governor Jerry Brown made an executive order that requires cities and towns to cut 25% of water use (excluding agriculture) to save an estimated 1.5 million acre feet of water over the next 9 months. Here are 17 interesting facts about the longest California drought in over a century.
The drought currently encompasses over 98% of the state of California.
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More than 44% of California is in “exceptional” drought — the worst level of drought.
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Some parts of the Sierra Mountains that typically have 66 inches of snow pack are barren.
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Farmers could sell their water for $700 an acre foot, more than they would earn by using the water to grow crops.
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“Nearly 60 percent of the state’s water needs are now met by groundwater, up from 40 percent in years when normal amounts of rain and snow fall.”
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“The drought forced California farmers to fallow 500,000 acres of land in 2014. And the number could double in 2015.”
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“California-based trade organization Western Growers Association estimated 17,000 farm jobs were lost in 2014.”
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“California is the world’s fifth-largest supplier of food.”
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“California grows 43 percent of the nation’s fruits, nuts, and vegetables and more than 90 percent of its almonds, grapes, and broccoli.”
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“The current drought cost the (farming) sector an estimated $2.2 billion last year.”
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“In some areas of the Central Valley, the land is sinking by one foot or more per year.”
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“The Sierra Nevada snowpack, which is counted on to provide 30 percent of the state’s water supply as it melts through early summer, is at its second-lowest level on record.”
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“The diminished hydropower capacity of California’s dams cost electricity customers a total of $1.4 billion in the past three years.”
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“It will take about 11 trillion gallons of water (42 cubic kilometers) — around 1.5 times the maximum volume of the largest U.S. reservoir — to recover from California’s continuing drought, according to a new analysis of NASA satellite data.”
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California’s current drought is driest period in the state’s 163 years of recorded rainfall history.
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NASA scientists predict that there is an 80 percent chance of a megadrought in the Southwest United States before the end of the century.
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Rows of almond trees cover nearly 1 million acres in California and consume 1.07 trillion gallons annually in the state, one-fifth more than California families use indoors.
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