Dry fields, lost lawns: A look back at California's drought
LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Gov. Jerry Brown has declared an end to the state's water emergency following a five-year drought that reduced rivers to trickles, farmland to dust and forests to graveyards of dead trees.
Farmers also dug thousands of new wells, sucking up groundwater in the Central Valley and causing the ground to sink.
Water districts issued strict conservation rules and paid property owners to rip out water-slurping lawns and replace them with less thirsty plants.
"Drought shaming" snoops outed homes and businesses in places such as Beverly Hills that let their sprinklers run too long.
Storms hit in 2015 and returned with a vengeance last year, filling reservoirs, overflowing dams, swelling creeks and pumping up the snowpack.