Reservoir banks that used to be underwater at Millerton Lake on top of the Friant Dam.
REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
California just entered its fifth year in drought. Experts say it's been the worst the state has seen in 1,200 years.
Dwindling reservoirs, shrinking lakes, and dried-up farm fields were everywhere last year — and despite some recent signs of recovery, the overall forecast is still ominously dry.
Just this month, the state announced that it's snowpack reserves — which usually supply California's farmers and residents with roughly a third of their water — have finally recovered to normal levels, thanks to El Niño.
Last year, they lingered at their lowest level in history.
These photos, most of which are from May 2015, are an important reminder of the intense damage this season's drought has wrought:
REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
A field of dead almond trees in Coalinga in the Central Valley. Almonds use an estimated 10% of the state's water budget.
REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
Boat docks that were once at the edge of the water on Millerton Lake on the San Joaquin River in Friant.
Reservoir banks that used to be underwater at Millerton Lake, on top of the Friant Dam.
A boat paddle at the bottom of the nearly dry Almaden Reservoir near San Jose.
A Lake Tahoe ski resort had far less snow than usual this season, as seen in this photo from March.
A canal runs through dwindling farm fields in Los Banos.
A view of Pine Flat Lake from an area that used to be underwater in Fresno County.
A tractor collects golf balls on a parched driving range in Palm Springs. According to new state regulations introduced May 5, communities like Palm Springs — where residents use more than 165 gallons of water per person per day — would have to cut back their usage by 35%.
A section of Lake Oroville was nearly dry in August, when it was at 32% of its total 3,537,577-acre-foot area.
A skier approaches the edge of the snow at Lake Tahoe in March.
This Millerton Lake jetty, located on the San Joaquin River in Friant, used to be in the middle of the water.
A farmworker walks through thirsty fields in Los Banos, an area of the San Joaquin Valley between Santa Cruz and Merced. On May 5, state water regulators adopted the first rules for mandatory urban water cutbacks. Farms, which account for 80% of the state's water consumption, are exempt from the law.
A canal runs through dried-up farm fields in Los Banos.
Irrigation water runs along a dried-up ditch between rice farms to provide water for fields in Richvale, an agricultural town north of Sacramento.
A parched water-storage facility near homes in La Quinta.
A dried-up canal runs through a lush green golf course in La Quinta.
Water pours into a dried-out canal in Los Banos.
Water flows into a dried-out lake on a golf course in La Quinta.
A parched aqueduct in Victorville, a city east of Los Angeles.
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