14 Maps That Explain 2014

"There seems to be no relief in sight as the calendar flips over to 2014," the U.S. Drought Monitor pronounced of the West's parched conditions on January 7, after 2013 went down as (then) California's driest year on record. Days later, California Governor Jerry Brown declared a "drought State of Emergency," and as the year rolled on, more than 80 percent of the state found itself locked in "extreme or exceptional drought" (blood-red and fire-engine-red in the maps above, respectively).

As the above maps show, California only dried further as the year went on. The damages were severe: The state's agricultural industry—which produces half of the fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in the U.S.— lost $1.5 billion in revenue, with some 17,100 seasonal and part-time farm workers losing their jobs. Overall, the economic cost to California so far is estimated at $2.2 billion. And so much groundwater is gone that the state is actually shrinking in mass. "The nation’s produce basket may come up dry in the future if it continues to treat [groundwater] reserves like an unlimited savings account," a July report from U.C. Davis warned. ​It's uncertain how long California's drought will last, but some reports predict a century.