article_snippet.sent: And drought-weary Californians, who can't expect much encouragement from mountains elsewhere in the West: Snow that fills the Colorado River is lagging, too, officials said Friday.
article_snippet.sent: the Colorado River supplies water to about 40 million people and 6,300 square miles of farmland in seven states, including California.
article_snippet.sent: The Rocky Mountain snow that melts into the Colorado River doesn't flow directly to California and other downstream users.
article_snippet.sent: Instead, it's held in a series of reservoirs that release enough water to fulfill the legal allotments to southwestern states under a series of agreements and court rulings.
article_snippet.sent: The reservoirs have sufficient water to provide California and other downstream states with California and other downstream states full shares this year and for the foreseeable future, said Matthew Allen, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the reservoir system.
article_snippet.sent: California also gets water from the Sierra Nevada range, where the snow cover was the lowest California has ever been in 65 years of record-keeping as of Wednesday.
article_snippet.sent: The U.S. Drought Monitor says 40 per cent of California is in an exceptional drought, the most severe category, and another 25 per cent is in an extreme drought, the second-most severe.
article_snippet.sent: Gov. Jerry Brown ordered mandatory, statewide water cutbacks by cities and towns, aiming for a 25 percent cut in water use.
article_snippet.sent: Extreme drought conditions also spread into Nevada and southern Oregon, along with smaller pockets in Utah and Arizona.
article_snippet.sent: Milder drought conditions extend across the rest of the West, except for most of Montana and Wyoming.
article_snippet.sent: Other states served by the Colorado River are Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Nevada.
highlights_snippet.sent: Meanwhile, lagging Colorado River to keep relief from drought-weary Californians .