Current Impacts
To see or report current drought impacts, please visit the Drought Impacts Toolkit, where you can find impacts from media in the Drought Impact Reporter and from citizen scientists and other volunteer observers under Condition Monitoring Observations.
Historic Impacts
No two states have the same experience during a drought. Below are examples of some of the impacts experienced in California in the past. The process for developing this example impact table is described in Noel, M., Bathke, D., Fuchs, B., Gutzmer, D., Haigh, T., Hayes, M., Poděbradská, M., Shield, C., Smith, K. and Svoboda, M., 2020. Linking drought impacts to drought severity at the state level. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 101(8), pp.E1312-E1321. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0067.1. To view a more complete record, and to filter impacts by drought severity, sector and season, check out the interactive State Impacts Tool.
| Category | Examples of historically observed impacts |
|---|
| D0 | Active fire season begins |
| Dryland crop germination is stunted |
| Soil is dry; irrigation delivery begins early |
| Winter resort visitation is low; snowpack is minimal |
| D1 | Dryland pasture growth is stunted; producers give supplemental feed to cattle |
| Landscaping and gardens need irrigation earlier; wildlife patterns begin to change |
| Stock ponds and creeks are lower than usual |
| D2 | Fire season is longer, with high burn intensity, dry fuels, and large fire spatial extent; more fire crews are on staff |
| Grazing land is inadequate |
| Producers increase water efficiency methods and drought-resistant crops |
| River flows decrease; reservoir levels are low and banks are exposed |
| Trees are stressed; plants increase reproductive mechanisms; wildlife diseases increase |
| Water temperature increases; programs to divert water to protect fish begin |
| Wine country tourism increases; lake- and river-based tourism declines; boat ramps close |
| D3 | Dairy operations close |
| Federal water is not adequate to meet irrigation contracts; extracting supplemental groundwater is expensive |
| Fire season lasts year-round; fires occur in typically wet parts of state; burn bans are implemented |
| Fruit trees bud early; producers begin irrigating in the winter |
| Livestock need expensive supplemental feed, cattle and horses are sold; little pasture remains, producers find it difficult to maintain organic meat requirements |
| Low river levels impede fish migration and cause lower survival rates |
| Orchard removal and well drilling company business increase; panning for gold increases |
| Ski and rafting business is low, mountain communities suffer |
| Water conservation rebate programs increase; water use restrictions are implemented; water transfers increase |
| Water is inadequate for agriculture, wildlife, and urban needs; reservoirs are extremely low; hydropower is restricted |
| Water sanitation is a concern, reservoir levels drop significantly, surface water is nearly dry, flows are very low; water theft occurs |
| Wells and aquifer levels decrease; homeowners drill new wells |
| Wildlife encroach on developed areas; little native food and water is available for bears, which hibernate less |
| D4 | Fields are left fallow; orchards are removed; vegetable yields are low; honey harvest is small |
| Fire season is very costly; number of fires and area burned are extensive |
| Fish rescue and relocation begins; pine beetle infestation occurs; forest mortality is high; wetlands dry up; survival of native plants and animals is low; fewer wildflowers bloom; wildlife death is widespread; algae blooms appear |
| Many recreational activities are affected |
| Policy change; agriculture unemployment is high, food aid is needed |
| Poor air quality affects health; greenhouse gas emissions increase as hydropower production decreases; West Nile Virus outbreaks rise |
| Water shortages are widespread; surface water is depleted; federal irrigation water deliveries are extremely low; junior water rights are curtailed; water prices are extremely high; wells are dry, more and deeper wells are drilled; water quality is poor; |