The reservoir by which our RV park is located is so depleted that acres of lake bottom we've never seen before are bone-dry and growing weeds. We've been coming here for over a decade, and there have been other dry spells but this is the worst we've seen. There is still a lake but it is much diminished.
As CA natives we're accustomed to drought.. The warm, dry winters are a significant part of the state's charm. It's the season when the golden hillsides turn green, the evergreen oaks' leaves are rehydrated, wildflowers bloom, and for a few weeks the ravines become small creeks.
By late spring the grass is once again golden, riverbeds are dry, and the rain is gone until it returns (some years) in late fall. Other years it shows up only briefly in mid-winter, and another drought is declared.
The only way CA has managed to thrive in an arid climate is to trap snowmelt from the Sierras for use by city dwellers and agriculture, via reservoirs and aqueducts. In good years there is enough for all, in dry years agriculture gets hurt because cities are where the voters are.
