It started in 1999, and has spread to cover a third of the nation. Parts of the 11 Western states that have been hardest hit are experiencing the driest conditions on record, receiving only 20 percent of their normal rainfall. For California and Nevada, the last 12 months were the driest recorded since 1924. The volume of the Colorado River—a vital source of water for 30 million people in California, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, as well as Mexico—has fallen by half.

No. Climatologists warn that the drought is likely to only get worse.

A recent study in the journal Science warned that because of global warming, summer temperatures in the sun-baked Southwest could rise by as much as 9 degrees by 2070, ushering in catastrophic drought conditions not seen since the Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s.