Droughts

Diamond Valley Lake, the giant regional reservoir in Riverside County, has been called the "jewel" of Southern California when it comes to pleasure boating and bass fishing. But the jewel has been tarnished by the water woes gripping Southern California. The water level in the 4,500-acre lake near Hemet is down by nearly 40%, and on Monday the lake's owner, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, will close the boat ramp.

Nobody has strung a badminton net across the whisper-quiet main drag here, but some residents joke that they might as well do just that. Usually at this time of year, thousands of skiers follow a winding road to the June Mountain ski area two miles out of town. But with the region suffering its driest winter in at least 16 years, a car rolls through only every few minutes -- usually a local on an errand.

Global warming will worsen drought and reduce flows on the Colorado River, a key water source for Southern California and six other Western states, according to a report released Wednesday. The study, prepared by a National Research Council committee, paints a sobering picture of the future as the water needs of a rapidly expanding population test the limits of a river system further strained by the effects of climate change.

Drought in the Colorado River basin could soon force a cut in water deliveries, but Southern California is unlikely to be affected, according to a federal report released Wednesday. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation document examines the effects of four proposals for handling shortages on the river, which is suffering from the worst drought in a century and one of the most severe in 500 years. "There is a chance in three years we would have a shortage.

Although much of the Western United States has been in the throes of a drought that began around 2000, Southern California's taps have continued to flow, thanks to a giant system of aqueducts and storage reservoirs that draw from different regions. Here is a look at the drought and how this area's urban users have been largely protected from it so far. The parched Western U.S.

Put away that umbrella and hold on to that moisturizer. The National Weather Service on Monday declared that Los Angeles is experiencing its driest year on record. Only about 2.40 inches of rain has fallen on downtown Los Angeles since July 1, and there's no sign of rain through at least the middle of this month. Forecasters expected February -- historically Los Angeles' wettest month -- to provide some relief, but it didn't.

As Southern California endures its driest 12 months on record, firefighters are dealing with something new: the yearlong fire season. The region has not experienced a major rainstorm in nearly a year, with downtown Los Angeles recording just 2.42 inches of rain this season, more than nine inches below normal. The dry conditions are taking their toll.

Nature is pulling a triple whammy on Southern California this year. Whether it's the Sierra, the Southland or the Colorado River Basin, every place that provides water to the region is dry. It's a rare and troubling pattern, and if it persists it could thrust the region into what researchers have dubbed the perfect Southern California drought: when nature shortchanges every major branch of the far-flung water network that sustains 18 million people.

The driest periods of the last century -- the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and the droughts of the 1950s -- may become the norm in the Southwest United States within decades because of global warming, according to a study released Thursday. The research suggests that the transformation may already be underway. Much of the region has been in a severe drought since 2000, which the study's analysis of computer climate models shows as the beginning of a long dry period.

On Leonard Vallance's 18,000-acre farm in southern Australia, the fields are practically a desert, with scruffy weeds poking through the sand. It has barely rained in a year. For that matter, it has barely rained in the last 12 years over large parts of Australia. Vallance's 89-year-old father, who started the farm in 1936 on a plain in the Mallee region of northwest Victoria, says it is easily the worst drought he has ever seen.