A visitor to Folsom Lake, Calif., walks his dog down a boat ramp that is now several hundred yards away from the waters’ edge. Gov. Jerry Brown formally proclaimed California in a drought Friday, saying the state is in the midst of perhaps its worst dry spell in a century and the conditions are putting residents and their property in “extreme peril.”LOS ANGELES – Gov. Jerry Brown’s announcement that California is having a drought comes as no surprise to skiers, fly-fishers and home gardeners. With a sparse snowpack and piddling amounts of rain, the signs are everywhere. A few examples:
IT NEVER RAINS IN CALIFORNIA
Last year was the driest in 119 years of records. The Department of Water Resources said that Gasquet Ranger Station in Del Norte County, which averages nearly 100 inches of rain a year, ended the year with only 43.46 inches. Sacramento got 5.74 inches instead of the typical 18 inches, and downtown Los Angeles, which averaged 14.74 inches of rain, ended the year with 3.4 inches — beating a record low of 4.08 inches set in 1953.
PALTRY SNOWPACK EVIDENT FROM SPACE
The first snow survey of the winter this month found “more bare ground than snow,” the Department of Water Resources said. The statewide water content was about 20 percent of average for this time of year. The snow water equivalent on Thursday was just 17 percent of normal for the day. Satellite photos taken this week of the Sierra Nevada snowpack — an important source of water come spring — shows a skinny snake of white in a stark brown landscape. On the same day last year, the region was a fluffy, swirling blanket of white.