NASA Images Show Severity Of California’s Record-Setting Drought

A pair of NASA images, taken a year apart, show the profound impacts of California’s current drought, which Gov. Jerry Brown said yesterday poses a major threat to California’s environment and economy. A satellite image taken last Saturday shows virtually no snow cover

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California drought 2014

California has almost no snowpack this January.
in the Coast Range and Cascade Mountains, and only a modest amount of snow in the Sierra Nevada. Officials say the snowpack is only 10 to 30 percent of normal levels. In addition, California’s vital agricultural areas in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, which lie west of the Sierra Nevada, are a parched brown. By contrast, a satellite image taken in January 2013 shows significant snowpack in the mountains and a swath of green in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. Half of California’s yearly precipitation falls between December and February, so January’s record dry conditions threaten water supplies for the entire year.