City of Irvine
2020 Local Hazard Mitigation Plan
California experienced its most recent drought beginning in 2012 and lasting until 2017. All areas of the state were impacted, and by 2014 it was reported as the most severe drought in 1,200 years . Figure 3-2 illustrates the severity of the drought conditions experienced over the past 19 years. By the summer of 2014, almost all of California was experiencing D2 (severe drought) conditions. Irvine, all of Orange County, and more than 75 percent of California was reported as experiencing D4 (Exceptional Drought) conditions. By 2015, emergency water-saving mandates were enacted, which required all jurisdictions to reduce water use by no less than 25 percent. In late 2016 and early 2017, successive heavy rains helped end the drought conditions in the state. The following winter, in late 2017 and early 2018, rains did not return in the same quantity, and slight drought conditions returned across California. This moderate drought was again abated in the winter season of late 2018 and early 2019 when heavy rains ended any existing drought conditions. As of August 2019, approximately 9 percent of California was experiencing at least D0 (Abnormally Dry) conditions, which were primarily relegated to San Diego, Imperial, San Bernardino, Orange, and Riverside Counties. Irvine is on the edge of these conditions, as depicted in Figure 3-3 shows statewide drought conditions as of February 4, 2020.
Risk of Future Events
Drought will continue to be a foreseeable event in the future of California, including Irvine. Since most droughts are almost entirely contingent on global weather phenomena, which vary from year to year, it is impossible to predict either the frequency or severity of future drought events in Irvine. Droughts that result from infrastructure failure are equally impossible to predict since the circumstances that lead to infrastructure failure are unique to each situation.
Figure 3-2: Drought History (2000-2019)
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