California’s current drought is its most severe on record. We can look at the animated GIFs to get the most vivid picture, but it is also worthy to look at how widespread the current drought is. As the picture to the right shows: the current drought is affecting almost the entire state at an exceptional level. The drought is so extreme that it is literally causing the land to rise (with a loss of 240 gigatons of water).
But looking at the diagram doesn’t really give a feeling for how this crisis has developed. Instead of simply being a “one-off,” California is facing increasingly intense droughts on a yearly basis (as the GIF below shows).
Within the continental United States, droughts have continued to increase both in size and severity over the last few years. This is part of a larger, worldwide, decrease in available fresh water. Unfortunately, many highly useful GIFs depicting drought within the entire U.S. are too large to display here, and would make it hard for those on mobile devices to see. For those who are interested, many useful and accurate GIFs regarding drought in the United States can be found here.