As California suffers through another dry winter, increasing fears that drought conditions may be returning, the state’s residents are dropping conservation habits that were developed during the last drought and steadily increasing their water use with each passing month.
But in each of those eight months last year, the water savings dropped from 20 percent in May to 2.8 percent in an unseasonably dry December.
Many eased, or dropped entirely, their mandatory water restrictions, rebate programs and other incentives to conserve, because they wanted to make more money by selling more water, and in part because it was difficult to convince their customers of the urgency when the state had just seen its wettest winter in 20 years.
By December, the most recent month for which the State Water Resources Control Board has data, statewide water use was only down 2.8 percent, compared with December 2013, the baseline year that state water regulators use for monthly water conservation reports.
That happened after the 1976-77 drought, the 1987-92 drought and the 2007-2009 drought.
That year, in the most stark depths of the drought, snow levels ended at 5 percent of normal on April 1, an all-time record low that led Brown that day to travel to a grassy meadow at Echo Summit near Lake Tahoe that should have been under five feet of snow and declare the first statewide mandatory water restrictions in California history, with a target of reducing urban water use by 25 percent — a goal the state nearly met.
Ever since Brown declared the drought over, some parts of California have conserved more than others.
Cities around the Bay Area saved 15.5 percent, and cities on in the South Coast region, mostly Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County, saved the least, 11.7 percent.
The city continues to offer $125 rebates for people who buy low-flush toilets, along with paying $2 per square foot for people who remove lawns.
“All the programs are still in place.

Forecasters are watching an area of low pressure and several reinforcing shots of atmospheric energy that are sinking south along the coast out of the Pacific Northwest.
Related: Wildfire worries as drought worsens in Southwest, Plains Weather Highlights: An upper-level atmospheric disturbance will bring some rain and snow to parts of Southern California and the Southwest this week Showers, and a few thunderstorms, are expected to move into the central and south coast of California through the day on Monday More significant rainfall – as well as heavier snow at elevation – is expected for the Inland Empire, extreme Southern Sierra, and toward the Four Corners Unsettled conditions and onshore flow continue through midweek Upper-level low expected to bring more significant moisture onshore as it moves in later week, but how far north or south this falls is still up for debate Most long-range model guidance suggests low may be too far south, over Baja, to bring much rain to SoCal, but should bring locally heavy rain to Arizona/Four Corners region Stay on top of active weather | Visit our warnings and alerts page Watch below: Tracking rain and snow this week Play Video Play Mute 0:00 / 0:00 Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Stream TypeLIVE 0:00 Playback Rate 1x Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off, selected Subtitles undefined settings, opens undefined settings dialog captions and subtitles off, selected Audio Track Fullscreen This is a modal window.
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February is typically one of the wettest months in California, with Los Angeles collecting an average of 3.8 inches and San Francisco 4.45 inches.
As of February 8th, the Southern Sierra was at only 20 percent of its normal snowpack for the date, and a paltry 13 percent of its usual April end-of-season average.
Thunderstorms may also boost amounts over some areas, raising the concern somewhat for the possibility of mud and debris flows.
Stay with us here at The Weather Network, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook as we continue to update this story as it develops.
With files from The Weather Network meteorologist Mario Picazo.

The inter-ministerial task team on drought and water scarcity has declared the Western Cape a national disaster area.
The drought has had a devastating effect on the Free State, the Eastern Cape, the Northern Cape and parts of KwaZulu-Natal, with the Western Cape worst affected.
Declaring a national disaster lays the basis for financial and humanitarian aid by the government.
The Northern Cape, the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape had already declared provincial disasters.
Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane said her meetings with Western Cape Premier Helen Zille regarding the drought and interventions in the Western Cape were productive and fruitful.
There are licences where we had to sit with, four licences were issued in the space of a month.
Another three dam licences were issued before December," she said.
Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Des van Rooyen said national government interventions would include drilling boreholes, water restrictions, providing animal feed, desalination, reuse optimisation and regular water-use warning messages.
The only challenge is the slow pace of using the allocated funding that is geared to alleviate the impact of drought on particular sectors," said Van Rooyen.
The belt-tightening exercises of the government meant the disaster grants had to do more with less in the aftermath of the drought, he said.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources’ (Minagri), despite other parts of the country recording good harvests in season A this year, which is currently ending, numerous households in Eastern Province have been left stranded with little or no harvests, putting them at a risk of hunger.
An ongoing assessment by Minagri has so far identified over 3,000 families in five sectors of Kayonza district, and over 2,500 families across seven cells in Kirehe district that are in need of food support due to a poor harvest.
The Eastern Province is more prone to drought than other parts of the country.
“We are finalising the mapping of those areas that will require food supplies to avert a possible food shortage,” said Jean Claude Murenzi, the Mayor of Kayonza district.
“Even though we are still waiting for the harvest season to end, we already have 14,000MT of supplies in storage, which we can rely on to support families in Nyagatare district.
The mapped areas that require food intervention are Ndego, Murama, Kabarondo, Mwiri, Kabare and Rwinkwavu sectors of Kayonza and Nyarubuye, Kigano, Nasho, Mpanga, Nyamugari and cells in Kirehe districts.
The ministry said agricultural production has dramatically increased in other parts of the country, which means food supplies will be mobilised internally.
The rise in output is attributed to more cultivated land across the country and scaling up of agro-inputs.
Figures from Minagri show that this season 585,400MT of beans are expected from 354,900ha; 66,014MT of rice from 13,728ha; while cassava production will reach 703,909MT cultivated on 44,128ha.
Despite the armyworm invasion last year, maize production is also expected to do well with production set at 775,000MT from 258,139ha.

Cape Town – The Western Cape’s water crisis is set to be Premier Helen Zille’s main focus as she delivers her State of the Province Address (Sopa) on Friday.
Political analysts have warned that decisive leadership was needed on the drought as well as the “shenanigans” at the City of Cape Town where beleaguered mayor Patricia de Lille waits to learn her fate.
Preparations are under way for the Sopa despite discussions by other provinces to delay their events due to the historic postponement of the State of the Nation Address (SONA).
The DA Western Cape Legislature’s chief whip, Mark Wiley, said a decision was taken to proceed with Sopa as scheduled.
Political analyst Daniel Silke said the bulk of Zille’s address should go towards providing leadership and clarity on the water crisis in the province.
“She will need to show leadership in the issue of the management of the drought and provide some reassurance to citizens of the province and Cape Town that there is progress being made on the augmentation procedure," Silke said.
"And I think she will have to at least attempt to reduce the sort of mixed messages that we are getting from national government and the City."
Silke said Zille would also have to provide some reassurances with regard to the battles surrounding the City of Cape Town mayor, Patricia de Lille.
A motion of no confidence in De Lille is scheduled for this Thursday.
Weekend Argus

Paul and OWRD officials detailed estimated drought conditions for the Klamath Basin for 2018, and answered questions surrounding water rights and outlining how the state addresses calls to fulfill water rights.
OWRD officials hosted three interactive meetings for local residents last week, meeting in Fort Klamath on Tuesday, Chiloquin on Wednesday, and Sprague River on Friday.
The meetings also urgently addressed pending drought in the region, which has yet to be officially declared, but is expected soon.
Jason Miner, natural resources adviser to Gov.
Brown is planning a visit to the Klamath Basin within the next couple of months, likely related to the pending declaration of drought by Klamath County Commissioners anticipated for consideration this week.
An attendee also asked why water was shut off to some areas in the Upper Basin region in 2017 despite the good water year.
So we would start with the most junior water user and work our way toward the earlier dates until we could actually fulfill that senior water user’s water right.
If it’s an instream claim, then we have to measure.
There are numerous in-stream claims associated with each river, and we are mandated to measure the flow at the bottom of that instream claim.
As an example for the Williamson (River), we have to measure the lowest point on the Williamson for the claim.”

The drought that has plagued Texas since Hurricane Harvey drenched most of the state has raised fire risks and could eventually cause agriculture to take a hard hit, Texas A&M experts say.
Since Jan. 1, Brazos County has only seen about 1.50 inches of rain, with the norm being around 4 inches of rain.
According to the Texas A&M Forest Service’s daily fire danger forecast, almost all of Texas — including Brazos County and surrounding areas — is in moderate danger of grass and forest fires.
Much of the state is under a burn ban, including Brazos, Burleson, Robertson and Milam counties in the Brazos Valley.
Mark Welch, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension grains economist, said the crops that are going to suffer the most are the winter crops, particularly grains.
Danger comes, too, if the drought extends, Welch said.
The La Niña phenomenon pushes rains from the tropics farther north and west, leading to drier conditions in the southern U.S. Texas does not drive the wheat or corn markets, Welch said, so the lack of rain might not be significantly felt by the average grocery store shopper.
With small profit margins, farmers often struggle, even with good quality crops.
"If they can’t make it with crops that are good, what happens when things fall back to being average or less than average?"
Welch said.

Lake Powell, which straddles Utah and Arizona, is expected to get 47 percent of its average inflow because of scant snow in the mountains that feed the Colorado River, said Greg Smith, a hydrologist with the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
It was the seventh-worst forecast for Lake Powell in 54 years.
Powell, along with Lake Mead on the Nevada-Arizona border, helps ensure the Colorado River system has enough water to get through dry years.
Normal allotment threatened Lackluster runoff into Lake Powell this spring is not likely to have an immediate impact on water users because most reservoirs upriver from Powell filled up after last winter’s healthy snowfall, said Marlon Duke, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages Powell, Mead and other reservoirs.
Along the Green River, a Colorado River tributary in Wyoming, the snowpack is 110 percent of average.
Along the San Juan River in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico, it’s 32 percent of average.
One reason is a strong winter weather pattern steering big storms away from the Southwestern United States and sending them north, said Russ Schumacher, Colorado’s state climatologist and an associate professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University.
Another reason is exceptionally warm temperatures across much of the Southwest, he said.
Lake Powell, the second-largest, is at 56 percent.
Some climate scientists say global warming is already shrinking the river.

The Feb. 8 drought monitor shows an increase in severe drought conditions across the Hill Country, and extreme drought conditions for the Texas Panhandle.
90 percent of the state of Texas is under abnormally dry to extreme drought conditions, that’s up from 41 percent just three months ago.
Since Jan. 1, Austin has only recorded 0.42" at Camp Mabry, and 0.32" at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
That’s a deficit of nearly 2.50" for the year.
Over the next seven days, we’re only expecting a 0.10" to 0.25".
Despite a mainly dry start to 2018, Lake Levels are still in good shape.
Lake Travis is near its February average, and Lake Buchanan is over four feet above its February average.
As far as the long-range forecast, there’s some good news and bad news.
First the good: The eight to 14 day outlook is showing above average rainfall, but the three-month outlook is trending drier than average.

An interministerial task team on drought and water scarcity has declared the country’s drought a national disaster.
The drought has had a devastating effect on the Free State, the Eastern Cape, the Northern Cape and parts of KwaZulu-Natal, with the Western Cape worst affected.
The Northern Cape, the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape had already declared provincial disasters.
Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane said her meetings with Western Cape Premier Helen Zille regarding the drought and interventions in the Western Cape were productive and fruitful.
There are licences where we had to sit with, four licences were issued in the space of a month.
Another three dam licences were issued before December," she said.
Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Des van Rooyen said national government interventions would include drilling boreholes, water restrictions, providing animal feed, desalination, reuse optimisation and regular water-use warning messages.
"In addition, an amount of R74.8m was given to the Western Cape province in August 2017 to deal with the situation.
The only challenge is the slow pace of using the allocated funding that is geared to alleviate the impact of drought on particular sectors," said Van Rooyen.
The belt-tightening exercises of the government meant the disaster grants had to do more with less in the aftermath of the drought, he said.