Remember, the drought could come back next year.
The announcement came after months of record rainfall — an onslaught that literally changed the landscape of Southern California.
Hills and mountains that for years were a dry and brittle brown suddenly turned green.
But all of that lush green and wetness made us forget about those water restrictions we had to abide by, those quotas that cities and water districts had to meet to reduce their usage.
It made us forget that regardless of how good things might seem now, we are still living in a desert.
Advertisement The thing is, we don’t know what next year — or the year after — will bring.
We may luck out and get two or three more years of heavy rain.
“This drought emergency is over, but the next drought could be around the corner,” Brown said.
I say this because many people are going to view Brown’s lifting of the drought as a license to waste water.
But the hills have already lost much of the green and our stream beds are drying up again.