New government maps show nearly all the West is in drought and it’s not even summer time but: “That is unprecedented”

In an unprecedented move, Southern California officers declared a water scarcity emergency and requested roughly 6 million residents to restrict all outside watering to just as soon as every week.  

"We knew local weather change would stress our water supplies and we've been getting ready for it however we did not know it could happen this quick," stated Gloria Gray, chairwoman of the Metropolitan Water District Board of Directors.  

The most recent government maps show nearly all of the West is in drought, and 95% of California is struggling severe or extreme drought.

"That is actual. That is serious. That is unprecedented," mentioned Adel Hagekhalil, normal supervisor for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.  

California shouldn't be alone as reservoirs across the West are draining.  

Lake Mead, the most important reservoir within the nation shaped by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, needs a new pump to make sure water can flow to Las Vegas. 

"The issue with local weather change is that it takes all the historic patterns and kind of shifts them," NASA scientist Dr. JT Reager told CBS Information' Ben Tracy. 

Reager said the West is in a 22-year megadrought, as climate change makes it hotter and drier. 

"We're just starting to see the dominoes fall. It's drier, we're beginning to see much less water in our reservoirs, and we have now fires, and in California, there's just this sequence of consequences that we anticipate," mentioned Reager.