I've lived in this state my whole life and I've seen the weather patterns swing in both directions. And I've seen the difference between a "real" drought and a "political" drought. Make no mistake, there is plenty of water in this state above ground and below. Whats really going on is the media is making a mockery of this story, and for whatever reason people easily buy into what the media/legislation tells them.....strangely without thinking for themselves.
The real story no one wants to talk about is Gov Brown is pushing heavily for an underground water pipe from northern CA to southern CA. This aqueduct would override any current water allotments from the north and allow southern CA to take whatever they want. Obviously not what the people north of Sacramento think is best, and without the power of media propagating a catastrophic "drought", Browns aqueduct agenda losses merit. So no matter how much water we have pouring down on us, and no matter how full our rivers and lakes are and have been, they still cry drought so that Brown maintains his leverage to shove his legislation down our throats. He's even asking Obama to help push it through via executive order before he leaves office in the next couple weeks. Frigging politicians SUCK. Cant get the people to agree so shove it through via EO.
That said, southern CA will always suffer from low water conditions because of the sheer number of peeps in relation to the complete lack of water reservoirs they have for themselves. And because most of it is desert dirt covered in cement/asphalt, most water they get down there just runs off into the ocean. Bad planning because of environmental movements which hobble any action which truly solves the problem. Heaven forbid anyone build another dam in this county.....
I could go on and on about this but I dont want to clog up a good thread about politics. Just know that the CA "drought" has been over for a long long time and what you hear about CA is media propaganda for political gains.