ABSTRACT: California is entering the fourth year of a severe drought, which in some respects (certainly in terms of mountain snowpack) is unprecedented in the instrumental record. The Colorado River basin is also experiencing a continuing drought, which while somewhat less severe than California’s has been more persistent and has now continued for more than a decade. In both cases, the droughts are superimposed on long-term increases in temperature, which has led to declines in snowpack, changes in seasonal runoff timing, and, in the case of the Colorado River, declines in (annual) stream flow volumes. These recent events, taken together with underlying long-term climatic changes, give rise to questions as to the future performance of water resource systems, and the nature of future droughts. There is, for instance, some indication that droughts in the Western U.S. are shifting from dominantly precipitation-controlled to temperature controlled. I discuss here ongoing climatic change across the Western U.S., and its manifestations in the California and Colorado River basin droughts. I discuss as well as the Pacific Northwest drought of 2015, which was associated with anomalously warm winter (and summer) temperatures.