[Thud]

This is a return to the historic normal, not a drought or mega-drought. The 20th Century was the wettest in the past 2000 years. The historic normal for the Southwest, and California, is 2/3 of the 20th Century average. A real drought by historic standards, and those can last for 100-200 years, is 1/3 of the 20th Century average. See:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/02/drying-west/kunzig-text
Drying of the West, (February 2008), National Geographic, Kunzig, Robert.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D4EWHPU/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o02_?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow, Ingram, B. Lynn, and Malamud-Roam, Frances, 2013, University of California Press

California will be okay after we get desperate enough to overrule the greenies about desalinization plants. Israel is producing all the fresh water it wants from those for $1,0000 per acre foot. California is presently using about 9 million acre feet of water for industrial use and personal consumption, so that would cost us only about $9 billion a year.

Agriculture is another matter. Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and western Colorado will have to make do with the @ 3-4 million acre feet they'll be able to draw from a much reduced Colorado River. Pumping costs to get water from California, or over the Rocky Mountain Divide, will be ferocious.

[Thud]

erg, $1,000 per acre foot. Preview is my friend.

[blam]

"This is a return to the historic normal, not a drought or mega-drought. The 20th Century was the wettest in the past 2000 years"

AYE.
(bump)