Drought

California Gov. Jerry Brown Orders Mandatory Water Restrictions For First Time In State's History

For the first time in the state's history, California officials have imposed mandatory water restrictions on all of the state's residents as an answer to the record-low snowpack observed this year in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

"Today we are standing on dry grass where there should be five feet of snow. This historic drought demands unprecedented action," Gov. Jerry Brown said in a statement. "Therefore, I'm issuing an executive order mandating substantial water reductions across our state. As Californians, we must pull together and save water in every way possible."

The executive order requires that water use be cut by 25 percent statewide, according to NBC News. California had another long-term drought in the 1970s, and watering restrictions were considered then, but were never actually implemented, the governor's office told NBC News.

This time, Brown said, it's time to take a step that's never been taken before because the mountains, which usually provide a lot of the state's water, are bare.

(MORE: $1 Billion Water Spending Plan Announced By Gov. Brown)

"This year looks like the lowest snowpack on record going back 70-plus years for many snow courses," Frank Gehrke, chief of snow surveys with the California Department of Water Resources, told NBC News in a separate report last week. "And that has very severe ramifications for what's going to flow into the reservoirs come next spring and summer."

This graphic, obtained by NBC Los Angeles, shows the restrictions that were put in place by the State Water Resources Control Board earlier this week:

But Brown's restrictions go a step further. He has ordered the state to replace 50 million square feet of lawns with drought-tolerant landscaping and banned the watering of grass in street medians, according to ABC News. Brown has also required agricultural water users to report their water usage to the state and ordered significant cuts in the amount of water used by cemeteries, golf courses and school campuses, the report added.

The water restrictions follow a survey released last week in which California residents said they don't think their neighbors are doing enough to help with the drought. Sixty-six percent of all Californians polled by the Public Policy Institute of California said they believe the drought is a big problem, and people in their area aren't doing enough to conserve water.

The National Weather Service announced Wednesday afternoon that much of Southern California just experienced its warmest March on record, beating the old record by 2 degrees.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: California's Historic Drought