@ken and the grass 
b e a r d
@hideki @ken this is in southern california and far from the coast, it's literally a desert. it might look like this in the springtime but definitely not year round. if you hop over the mountains and go further east you get to death valley which is one of, if not the hottest place in the united states.
@ken @hideki I'm just giving extra information, although I'm sure the colors were boosted quite a bit here. The Google Maps pictures were all taken during the summer time, even the one from June '07 isn't very green and looks pretty much like the other two. It does look a little bit greener but the time of day and camera quality are also a lot different. California, if you're not actually nearby the coast, is pretty hot and it gets pretty dry too.
If you look on Bing maps it's a lot greener than on Google. Can't check too much on mobile but I would guess that these images were taken earlier in the year instead of during the summer.
