Why The Dead Lawns?

As I have been driving around Billings I have been noticing what seems like a lot of dry/dead lawns. From residential to business to even government buildings.

My question is, are we in that much of a drought that we can't turn on the sprinklers and feed the grass or is it a price issue?

We have been watering our lawn and parts of it still seem dry. We also haven't seen any watering notices come to our house.

When we got to town last July it didn't seem like there were as many dead lawns so I am just curious as to why it's happening this year.

Any ideas as to why this is happening?