California’s ‘extreme drought’ zone extends to Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo counties

CENTRAL COAST, Calif. - The National Weather Service announced that the drought situation in California has worsened, expanding the 'extreme drought' zone to both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties just ahead of summer.

The weather service posted the update Thursday morning.

The latest Drought Monitor expands the area of extreme drought to across all of SBA and SLO Counties. The cumulative percent area of extreme to exceptional drought across CA increased from 74.46% to 85.20% this past week. #CAwx #cadrought https://t.co/RsYqIcxcm7 pic.twitter.com/wThaK5puKF

— NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) June 10, 2021

The service said, "The cumulative percent area of extreme to exceptional drought across CA increased from 74.46% to 85.20% this past week."

This announcement comes after the start of the local fire season.

Lake Mead at the Hoover Dam in Nevada, the largest reservoir in the U.S., is also at its lowest level in history.

To view a full map of drought conditions across the U.S., visit droughtmonitor.unl.edu.