Drought warning issued across the West

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KOVR/CNN) – Parts of the U.S. are seeing one of the most significant droughts in a decade. The exceptional drought category, the most severe on the scale, is overtaking parts of four western states affecting more than 15 million Americans.

California, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, and other states continue to deal with water shortages and wildfires, officials may have to shut down its hydroelectric power plant by the end of August.

Plus, there’s a water shortage emergency for nearly two million in the San Francisco Bay area. California Governor Gavin Newsom said, “The hots are getting hotter in this state and the dries are getting a lot drier.”

In Nevada, Lake Mead could reach its lowest levels since the 1930s.

Next door in Utah, Governor Spencer Cox said, “We are experiencing the worst drought in decades here in the states since at least 1956, if not the worst in our state’s recorded history.”

This year’s snowpack didn’t make a big impact, putting livestock and crops at risk.

Commissioner of the Utah Department of Agriculture Craig W. Buttars said, “We also do not have enough water to raise the feed for the livestock that we do have. We don’t have enough water for our crops.”

For western states, a bad drought can cause a bad wildfire season.

The massive Telegraph and Mescal Fires are still burning in Arizona, east of Phoenix.

The memory of the state’s largest wildfire in modern history is fresh on the mind of Ventura County Fire Department Captain Brian McGrath. “It’s on everybody’s mind. We’re constantly thinking about that,” he said. “There’s still homes that aren’t rebuilt yet and may never get rebuilt. As a benefit from it is that that brush that hadn’t burned in such a long time, is gone now.”

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