New authorities maps present nearly the entire West is in drought and it is not even summer time yet: “That is unprecedented”

In an unprecedented transfer, Southern California officials declared a water shortage emergency and requested roughly 6 million residents to restrict all out of doors watering to only as soon as a week.  

"We knew local weather change would stress our water supplies and we've been preparing for it however we didn't know it would occur this fast," said Gloria Gray, chairwoman of the Metropolitan Water District Board of Administrators.  

The newest authorities maps present practically the entire West is in drought, and 95% of California is suffering extreme or excessive drought.

"This is real. This is critical. This is unprecedented," mentioned Adel Hagekhalil, general supervisor for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.  

California is not alone as reservoirs throughout the West are draining.  

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

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

Reager mentioned the West is in a 22-year megadrought, as local weather 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 now have fires, and in California, there's simply this sequence of consequences that we anticipate," mentioned Reager.