It didn't rain very much. It's unusually hot. And now the state is literally on fire.
Up on Echo Summit in the Sierra, Frank Gehrke, chief surveyor for the California Department of Water Resources told the Associated Press he wasn't finding a snowpack.
"I'm finding nothing," he said. "Seriously, there is no snow on the course at all."
That sometimes happens in May, and the department has yet to declare a drought in the state. In fall the state got more rainfall than usual, so reservoirs are relatively full. But another dry year could mean serious problems.
In the meantime, dry vegetation is fueling fires, and hot winds are fanning them. In Sonoma County, a 125-acre fire was 60 percent contained, the AP reported.