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A section of Lake Oroville is seen nearly dry on August 19, 2014 in Oroville, California. As the severe drought in California continues for a third straight year, water levels in the State's lakes and reservoirs is reaching historic lows. Lake Oroville is currently at 32 percent of its total 3,537,577 acre feet.
The state is in its fourth year of drought conditions. California's official drought site notes that this January was "considered the driest January since meteorological records have been kept." Reservoir levels remain way below average.
Resevoir levels are so low that the LA Times op-ed says this:
Right now the state has only about one year of water supply left in its reservoirs, and our strategic backup supply, groundwater, is rapidly disappearing. California has no contingency plan for a persistent drought like this one (let alone a 20-plus-year mega-drought), except, apparently, staying in emergency mode and praying for rain.
You could write this off as hyperbolic. But look at the description of the author, from the bottom of the story:
"Jay Famiglietti is the senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech and a professor of Earth system
Not generally the type of guy whose op-ed about water you write off.