New government maps show almost the entire West is in drought and it is not even summer time yet: “This is unprecedented”

In an unprecedented move, Southern California officers declared a water scarcity emergency and requested roughly 6 million residents to restrict all outdoor watering to simply as soon as a week.  

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

The most recent government maps show almost the entire West is in drought, and 95% of California is suffering extreme or extreme drought.

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

California will not be alone as reservoirs across the West are draining.  

Lake Mead, the biggest reservoir in the nation formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, needs a brand new pump to make sure water can circulation to Las Vegas. 

"The issue with climate change is that it takes all of the historic patterns and type of shifts them," NASA scientist Dr. JT Reager instructed 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 simply beginning to see the dominoes fall. It's drier, we're beginning to see much less water in our reservoirs, and now we have fires, and in California, there's just this sequence of penalties that we anticipate," said Reager.