Brian Resnick reports:
What's missing in the photo on the right? Snow. And perhaps a bit of greenery.
NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released that photo to illustrate what a year of drought conditions (which have intensified recently) have wrought on the landscape. The amount of snow in California's Sierra region is between 4 percent and 22 percent of normal. And a change that drastic is easily seen from space.
ot's possibly the worst drought California has experienced in 500 years. Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency. Some rural areas may run out of water entirely in the next four months if conditions don't improve. California's State Water Project, an agency that redistributes water from the snowy mountains in the north to the drier south, has announced it cannot deliver water to many communities in the coming months. [more . . .]