Water Year 2015 has been noteworthy for much less precipitation than normal in California, temperatures much warmer than normal and a growing El Niño in the Eastern Pacific that many Californians hope will end the state’s drought. Most of all, Water Year 2015 will be remembered as the fourth year of one of the state’s most severe dry periods on record.
Water year 2015 continued the trend of surface water shortages for many urban and agricultural agencies.
Most notably, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project again had record low deliveries of zero project water to its north-of-Delta and south-of-Delta agricultural contractors and to agricultural contractors in its Friant Division. The SWP provided only 20 percent of its urban and agricultural contractors’ requested amounts. Statewide, the only bright picture was the Colorado River service area, where contractors for this interstate supply continued to receive their full allotments.
http://www.water.ca.gov/news/newsreleases/2015/092915elnino.pdf