COTW: Drought Hangs on in West

You got your F5 hurricanes and tornados, you got your wicked-cold polar vortex, you got your January thaw, and then you got no rain. Take you pick of the perturbations of global warming which have increased the frequency of extreme weather events (don't ask the Donald to explain the effects of global warming because he's got it backwards). This chart from the National Drought Mitigation Center released Monday shows how much of California is experiencing a drought thought to be the worst in four decades.

Even Catholic bishops are praying for rain. California lives on a knife's edge of water supplies for irrigated agriculture and urban centers. Water managers said that snowpack is only 20% of average so they will be able to deliver only 5% of the water needed. Dry vegetation will more easily ignite during the hot summer months to come.