We lived in UC Santa Barbara housing Jan 1998-Aug 1994 so through probably the strongest/longest drought since the 1860s, or at least one of them. And, yes, the local weather people kept forecasting storms and they would not make it. I found the forecasts of storms far less reliable than those for Rhode Island. I assume that is because in Rhode Island there is a lot more data coming from "upstream", because there is a continent with lots more data collected, while you Californians have an ocean.

I would not want to relate any recent droughts in California to climate change. Look into the 1860s. I imagine someone has done tree ring work (in the mountains where there are trees...) to see about climate change farther back. I know they did tree ring work to show that the first 1812 earthquake ruptured the San Andreas fault at Wrightwood.
Chris