After an all-too-brief reprieve, the Golden State is once again starting to brown up — at least on government drought maps.
The U.S. Drought Monitor now has nearly 48 percent of the state categorized as being in at least “moderate drought.” More than 91 percent of the state is listed as at least “abnormally dry,” the precursor stage to drought.
The term “drought,” is of course, highly subjective and has different meanings to different people.
The stage is certainly being set for some sort of drought.
This week as the State Water Resources Control Board considered permanent statewide restrictions on a list of wasteful water uses, members were told that, measured by a key collection of gauges in the northern Sierra Nevada, the December-through-February period has been California’s third driest on record (exceeded only by 1977 and 1991, when a “March Miracle” saved the wet season).
Those three months typically provide the state with half of its total annual precipitation.
At the same time, forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration project dry conditions to “develop or persist” in California over the next three months.
And while some have argued that they are given too much weight, John Leahigh, head of operations for California’s State Water Project, told the water board that an “ugly picture” is beginning to form of the state’s current water year.
With the notable exception of Lake Oroville, which engineers have kept at cautiously low levels after last year’s near spillway disaster, major reservoirs remain flush from last year’s precipitation.
But Leahigh told regulators that expectations are “dramatically decreasing” for runoff from the state’s key watersheds to replenish water supplies this year.

But the prospect of "Day Zero" — the day when the South African city runs out of water — is a whole new reality.
Liesel James is busy collecting what the family calls "gray water" from around her house.
“I’ll collect this and put it down the toilet, or take it out to the garden for the plants," she said.
"But we have to make sure we only use organic cleaning products so we don’t pour chemicals on the food we are trying to grow.” This story is part of an upcoming “Nightline” report.
“I think I’ll sell it.” Watch the full story on ABC News’ "Nightline" TONIGHT at 12:35 a.m.
“I don’t think enough people are doing this,” says Liesel.
“Maybe people really need the pressure to make them think outside of the box.” With nearly 4 million residents, Cape Town is South Africa’s second-most populous city.
Each person is allowed to use only 50 liters (13.2 gallons) per person per day from their taps.
“South Africa is probably one of the most unequal countries in the world,” Kevin says.
I liken it a lot of the time to how people must feel when there’s imminent war.

Klamath County, Ore. – You heard it first from NBC5 in January that Klamath County Commissioners were pursuing a drought declaration.
That declaration was signed Tuesday.
“It was the 28% snow water equivalent we have right now in snowpack in the mountains,” explained Klamath County Commissioner Donnie Boyd.
Boyd said Klamath County Commissioners were planning to make the declaration earlier this month.
The Endangered Species Act could also tighten water supplies for project farmers.
Tribes are calling for higher lake levels for endangered sucker fish above the Klamath Project, and increased river flows for endangered salmon below the project.
KOTI-TV NBC2 reporter Lyle Ahrens moved from Nebraska to Klamath Falls in the late 1970’s.
He instantly fell in love with the mountains, the trees and the rivers, and never once regretted the move.Lyle’s job history is quite colorful.
He’s managed a pizza parlor; he’s been a bartender, and a “kiwifruit grader” at an organic orchard in New Zealand.
A Klamath Falls radio station hired Lyle in the mid 90’s as a news writer and commercial producer.

And a quick look at the drought monitor map shows that the worst of the drought is in parts of the Southern Plains that have already seen its share of wildfires.
Friends from the Texas Panhandle, my long-time former home, say it’s been four months since they’ve seen any measurable moisture.
According to the Livestock Marketing Information Center (LMIC), it its most recent Livestock Monitor, “In recent months, the number of cattle placed into U.S. feedlots has been bolstered by the large 2017 calf crop, poor small grains grazing conditions (wheat) in the Southern Plains and rather good demand for animals put on feed.
Cattle on feed placements in 2017 ran well ahead of 2016 and the five-year average all year.
According to Jim Robb, director of the Livestock Marketing Information Center (LMIC), the pull-through last year occurred at the wholesale and live cattle level, creating a market that encouraged higher placements and marketings.
In its recent Livestock Monitor, LMIC analysts say the spike in placements is a double-edged sword.
“However, the placement pattern since last fall has put more slaughter cattle in the marketing window of late May through mid August than a year ago.
Note that many of those animals are heifers.
Those prices suggest dampened demand for feeder cattle late this spring on into the summer months.” LISTEN: Drought conditions on wheat pastures push feeder cattle to town So far this year, feeder cattle and calf prices have remained strong, as have fed cattle prices.
Related

Drought conditions continue to worsen across Texas as a whole, but recent rain here in Northeast Texas has either mildly improved or stanched worsening the nagging dry conditions.
The Texas Water Development Board reported Tuesday that 71 percent of Texas is now in a state of drought.
Conditions are worst in the Panhandle, where nearly the entire region is is a state of extreme drought.
Conditions in Northeast Texas have either remained moderate or improved to abnormally dry since last week.
Over the next few months, drought is expected to continue to expand in west and south Texas, but improvements are expected in the east and north central parts of the state.
Conditions have improved enough in Fannin County today for the Commissioner’s Court to lift the burn ban.
But the downside of all the rain in storms in the region this week is continuing flood warnings in most Northeast Texas counties, through at least Wednesday.

SACRAMENTO — A proposal to make California’s drought-era water restrictions permanent could allow the state to chip away at long-held water rights in an unprecedented power grab, representatives from water districts and other users told regulators Tuesday.
Members of the state Water Resources Control Board delayed a decision about whether to bring back what had been temporary water bans from California’s drought, spanning 2013 to 2017.
The plan is part of an effort to make water conservation a way of life, with climate change expected to lead to longer, more severe droughts.
It comes after U.S. officials declared that nearly half the state, all of it in the south, is back in drought just months after emerging from it.
Officials from several irrigation and water agencies said the restrictions are reasonable, but not the plan to impose them under the state Constitution’s prohibition on the “waste or unreasonable use” of water.
The restrictions, punishable by a $500 fine, include prohibitions on watering lawns so much that the water flows into the street, using a hose to wash down sidewalks or using a hose without an automatic shut-off nozzle to wash cars.
Running an ornamental fountain without a recirculating system would be barred, as would watering outside within 48 hours of a good rain.
Another measure would give cities and counties until 2025 to stop watering ordinary street medians.
Water officials expect neighbors to be responsible for detecting and reporting most of the wasteful water use, and they have no plans to add more enforcement officers if the permanent restrictions are adopted.
Lawmakers also are considering whether to allow districts to enforce drought regulations, a power now reserved for the state.

Without rain, Cape Town could run out of water by July 9, city authorities predict.
Will I be able to flush my hotel toilet and have a shower?
Sisa Ntshona, who heads the tourism marketing arm of South Africa’s government, has the answer you’d expect: Tourists — who support an estimated 300,000 jobs in South Africa’s Western Cape province — should come but they should be prepared to help out and "Save like a local," as the slogan goes.
"How do we recalibrate the norm for global tourism?"
Tourist cash For Cape Town, keeping tourists flowing through the city is an urgent priority.
"If South Africa falls off the tourism radar screen globally, to get it back on will take so much attention and focus," he said.
Bookings for the first quarter of the year have so far not fallen, Ntshona and Nadasen say, though they have been fielding inquiries from worried potential visitors.
Tourism officials are well aware of the potential threat, however.
Organizers of dozens of big conferences held in Cape Town each year are making plans to ship in water from other less thirsty parts of the country, Ntshona said.
But, regardless, "we need to recalibrate our relationship with water as a country," Ntshona said.

It’s starting to look like a drought year for California farmers who depend on water from the federal government.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced Tuesday that most farmers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta who get water from the federal Central Valley Project will receive just 20 percent of their requested allocation this year.
The agency said it can’t yet provide an initial allocation figure for many Sacramento Valley water agencies because of the lack of rain and the legal requirement that plenty of water be kept in Shasta Lake, the largest reservoir in California, to protect endangered species of Chinook salmon.
Despite last winter’s record rainfall, Californians must "prepare for the potential of return to drought conditions," said Federico Barajas, deputy regional manager of the bureau.
The Sierra Nevada snowpack is just 20 percent of normal and most of the state has received rainfall levels that are well below average.
Last winter’s record Northern California rainfall filled most of the state’s reservoirs and will ensure that most of the irrigation districts and municipal agencies that belong to the CVP will get at least some water from the feds.
At the San Juan Water District in suburban Sacramento, for instance, the reservoir conditions provide a cushion against the uncertainty of not receiving an initial allocation.
The State Water Project has set an initial allocation of 20 percent for all of its farm and municipal customers.
The short-term weather forecast does offer some relief.
The National Weather Service said the Sierra is expected to get as much as 8 inches of new snow starting late Wednesday.

South African officials are currently planning for ‘Day Zero’ – when they will be forced to turn off the water supplying Cape Town and instead give residents rationed amounts.
Ian Wright, a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science at Western Sydney University, singled out Perth as a prime example of a city at risk – arguing the metropolis had “strong parallels” with the situation in Cape Town He said: “Australia’s largest cities have often struggled with drought.
“Water supplies may decline further due to climate change and uncertain future rainfall.
“Perth is half the size of Cape Town, with two million residents, but has endured increasing water stress for nearly 50 years.
“Inflows have since shrunk by nearly 90 percent to just 42GL a year from 2010-2016.
“Australia’s fourth-largest city had the fastest capital city population growth, 28.2 percent, from 2006-2016.
“As a result, Perth became Australia’s first capital city unable to supply its residents from storage dams fed by rainfall and river flows.” South Africa has declared its current drought is a “natural disaster” as the nation desperately attempts to combat the horrifying prospect of “Day Zero”.
The government announced that it had elevated the level of the crisis to a “natural disaster” after a reevaluation of its “magnitude and severity”.
The region saw much-needed rain fall over the weekend but it did not fall for long enough to alter the course of the crisis.
The start of the month saw each resident’s allowance of water dramatically cut from 87 litres a day to 50 litres.

In Summary The move comes as the country seeks to tap into aquifers to meet demand for water.
Limited data on the country’s ground water resources has been cited as one of the barriers hindering irrigation schemes to maximise agricultural production.
The Rwandan government is hiring a consulting firm to help in gathering data on ground water reserves in the drought-prone Eastern Province.
This comes as the country seeks to tap into aquifers to meet demand for water.
According to Water for Growth Rwanda, a joint initiative between the government and the Netherlands, the study will run for six months from February to July.
It will involve a detailed study on aquifer types in selected areas in Eastern province.
The areas are Nyagatare-Gatsibo, Kayonza, Rwamagana, Ngoma, Kirehe, and Bugesera, which are the six districts most affected by recurrent drought.
Potential aquifers The advertised tender shows the study will assess the availability of ground water, depth of potential aquifers, possible yields and water quality in addition to recommending the optimum sites for long-term production boreholes.
Official data shows water coverage rate for the Eastern Province stands at 52 per cent, far below the country’s average of 75 to 80 per cent for rural areas.
A FAO-led team of experts, who have been mapping Rwanda’s regions, said it was difficult to determine the risks of drilling due to lack of data on depths and volume of groundwater reserves.