California Drought Watch

• The 2014 drought is responsible for the greatest reduction in water availability for California agriculture ever seen, about one third less than normal.
• The total statewide economic cost of the 2014 drought is $2.2 billion.
• The loss of 17,100 seasonal and part-time jobs related to agriculture represents 3.8 percent of farm unemployment.
• 428,000 acres, or 5 percent, of irrigated cropland is going out of production in the Central Valley, Central Coast and Southern California due to the drought.
• The Central Valley is hardest hit, particularly the Tulare Basin, with projected losses of $810 million, or 2.3 percent, in crop revenue; $203 million in dairy and livestock value; and $453 million in additional well-pumping costs.
• Agriculture on the Central Coast and in Southern California will be less affected by this year's drought, with about 19,150 acres fallowed, $10 million in lost crop revenue and $6.3 million in additional pumping costs.
• Overdraft of groundwater is expected to cause additional wells in the Tulare Basin to run dry if the drought continues.
• The drought is likely to continue through 2015, regardless of El Niño conditions.
• Consumer food prices will be largely unaffected. Higher prices at the grocery store of high-value California crops like nuts, wine grapes and dairy foods are driven more by market demand than by the drought.
• Groundwater management in California is a "slow motion train wreck."

Related:

• California CAN survive a mega-drought. (UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences study of virtual 72 year drought)