New government maps show practically all of the West is in drought and it isn’t even summer time yet: “This is unprecedented”

In an unprecedented move, Southern California officers declared a water shortage emergency and asked roughly 6 million residents to limit all out of doors watering to only once per week.  

"We knew climate change would stress our water supplies and we've been making ready for it however we did not know it could occur this fast," mentioned Gloria Gray, chairwoman of the Metropolitan Water District Board of Administrators.  

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

"This is actual. This is severe. That is unprecedented," stated Adel Hagekhalil, normal manager for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.  

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

Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the nation fashioned by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, wants a brand new pump to make sure water can movement to Las Vegas. 

"The problem with local weather change is that it takes all of the historical patterns and type of shifts them," NASA scientist Dr. JT Reager informed CBS Information' Ben Tracy. 

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

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