Can someone explain the western United States' water shortage?

Lack of rainfall and overpopulation.

Looks like this

@Jaxk you must be crafting a seriously long answer. lol.

California is a very dry state 10” per year in most low lying areas and almost all in the winter months. The snow pack in the mountains is what supports us most of the year. There are numerous lakes and reservoirs that collect the water and then it is sent to the central valley and southern parts. There is a huge cement river running from Sacrament to LA to handle that job. Four the past four years rainfall has been below ave. and so has the snow pack. Reservoirs are all but empty, lakes likewise, and the major source (the delta) supports many species of wildlife some of which are endangered. The California Central Valley produces most of the fruits and vegetables for the entire country. It’s shocking to see the orchards that took years to grow, dead. It keeps getting worse every year that the drought continues.

Basically there is not enough water to support all the various functions needed. Personally the only solution I see, is to build coastal deslination plants to supply the water for LA and San Diego.

@fredTOG – Actually I deleted most of it to keep from writing a book. It seems the more I said, the more I needed to explain.

To add to @fredTOG‘s answer, ground water supplies are also being depleted.

We’re concerned our well is going to run dry this summer, it’s a bad state of affairs after this 4 year drought. Normally the Sierra Nevada mountains near me have 40 feet of snow or more and that run off fills our numerous lakes, rivers and reserviors. Not this last number of years. It is going to be a bad fire season again as well. Up in smoke and no water.

@Coloma Well I hope someone helps mass produce this soon to help with fires.

What falls in precipitation is not enough to sustain intensive agriculture, industry, and lush suburban lawns in places with traditionally dry climates, so they tap the aquifers. Aquifers are underground reservoirs of clean, fresh water resulting from surface water filtering down through soil, rubble, and permeable stone. The problem is that these aquifers required thousands or tens of thousands of years to fill and many of them are now close to being completely used up. They’ve been squandered on golf courses in the middle of the desert or factory farms which could just as easily be situated somewhere with easy access to fresh water.

The paths of jet streams is being altered by the change in the temperature of air and water. The future of America’s west may become the same as “North Africa, which enjoyed a fertile climate during the subpluvial era” and is now the Sahara.

A huge, hard bubble of high pressure air parked in the Pacific Ocean. It’s also what’s creating cooler, wetter weather in the east.

@Pandora How interesting is that?! Thanks!

It’s either from global climate change, or from God punishing us for allowing gay marriage. Your interpretation would depend on your political affiliation.

We had a plumber out yesterday wanting them to divert the gray water from the master bath down to the garden. Bath water only not septic and were told this is illegal. WTF!
So, in the middle of this horrendous drought one is not allowed to recycle their bath/shower water and re-purpose it to keep other living things alive. Pfft!

We are recycling the water from the bird buckets and pools to our fruit trees out back, it is backbreaking, but we are determined to conserve and recycle every drop we can. The horses have automatic waterers that only fill a small basin as they drink, so no dumping/wasting any extra gallons from large water containers.

It’s like @syz says: there is a dome of high pressure sitting off the coast of California, and it is diverting moist air around and past California.

@syz @kritiper Yea the semi-permanent high pressure system is the reason the weather is so great there, but unfortunately has other consequences.

I had no idea it was so bad, this is terrible. Thanks for the answers, everyone.

It’s not abnormal for the west. We just have not been there long enough to understand we don’t need to be building cities in those areas.

Just this week it was determined there is a huge “blob” of warm water in the north central Pacific that may be the cause of the shift in the jet stream that is causing the high pressure dome off the west coast.

Thing is MOST of CA. ( Northern CA. to be exact ) IS, usually, very wet during the rainy/winter season from about Nov. through April. Just not the last few years. Southern CA. is desert, Northern CA. is mostly riparian, alpine and lush coastal forests. SoCal and NorCal are night and day in comparison.

And….( thank you for the opportunity to rant haha ) quit watering the damn golf courses, that is luxury water that cannot be spared.

Contrary to the illusion of landscaping and irrigation, it’s a desert, and it’s rained like 4 times for this whole year.

@Esedess

California has one of the most diverse climates you will ever see, anywhere. Only a few areas of the state are truly desert. See my above post.

@Coloma Fair enough… That’s absolutely true. I’m in SD county. Here at least, it has barely rained all year; and the longest it rained at any one time was for almost 1 day.

@Esedess I used to live in El Cajon years ago, in my early 20’s, man, it was a living hell out there, like 110–112 degrees in the summer.
I’m in the Sierra Nevada foothills about an hour out of Sacramento, we too have had little rain this year and virtually no snow, barely measurable..
One thing’s for certain most of the state is in a hardcore drought situation.

@Coloma Yea, the heat goes up quite a bit even just a few cities east. Where I am, it rarely reaches 100° ever.. Close enough to the coast to avoid those real desert temps, thankfully!

BTW, after having said that yesterday, as if to spite me, its been lightly sprinkling on and off today. lol~ the irony.

@Esedess Yay…here too, cloudy and T-storms, light rain tonight and tomorrow. Rejoice in every-little-drop!

OMG! It rained hard enough to wash my filthy car last night. haha
Supposed to be T-storms today. I was debating leaving all the farmy friends in their barn all day but just got the goose gang all set up with their fresh pools on the lawn.

Watch it will start pouring any minute again and I will have to venture forth and and put up the horses and carry the crippled goose and duck back to their barn and round up the others in the gaggle. My life as a animal herder. lol

@Coloma Ha! There’s that environmental dichotomy you were talking about. For me, it sprinkled hard enough that the ground almost wasn’t just dots… Almost~ Then, sunday was back to normal, like today, sunny 73° with little to no clouds.

@Esedess Haha..yep, same here and it was freaking 84 here today! I put the AC on in my car. Crazy!