(Illustration: NASA satellite image of California’s drought, late January-early February 2014, found here).

Picture of brown — the photo above looks like it came from history, a snapshot of some past time. But no…
In that time-frame with the image, California is in the midst of its worse drought since such record-keeping started, in 1885, and according to the data, it’s going to be dry for awhile.

Via NASA:

The coastal mountains from north of San Francisco to south of Los Angeles are snow free and dry, as is much of the Sierra Nevada.
In the midst of California’s Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, there are a few patches of green indicating some farms that still have access to water for irrigation.
But much of the region is brown—signs of land suffering from drought stress or left fallow when it would normally be planted with crops.
“If you showed me this image without the date, I would say: ‘This is California in early fall after a long, hot summer, before the fall and winter rains and snows arrived,’” said Bill Patzert, a climate scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“This is no California winter postcard.”
Though northern and central California received a burst of rain and snowfall in early February, the drought remains deep.
“Although there were short-term local improvements from this week’s ample precipitation, the long stretch of subnormal precipitation dating back to 2011-12 wet season has accumulated large deficits, leaving rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and snow packs well below normal,” wrote David Miskus of the NOAA Climate Prediction Center.
“Even though this storm was welcome, the central Sierra still needs 3 to 4 more copious storms to bring this wet season close to average.
“Unfortunately, little to no precipitation fell on southern California and the Southwest.”

Nine percent of the state is in what’s called “Exceptional Drought,” as in: Exceptional and widespread crop/pasture losses; shortages of water in reservoirs, streams, and wells creating water emergencies.
Up here in Humboldt County, we’re under an “Extreme Drought” designation, a couple of stops below ‘Exceptional,’ but there’s still time yet.