It's no surprise, really: Water levels in California's reservoirs continue to drop as the thirsty state waits for the first sign of fall rains. Still, it's startling to see the evidence of how far the reservoirs have fallen. Last week, Getty Images photographer Justin Sullivan took an aerial tour of some of the reservoirs, including Lake Oroville. That's the biggest reservoir in the State Water Project and the second-largest in the state after Lake Shasta.
Take a look at some before and after views of the lake, below, comparing it in July 2011, after a wet winter and copious spring runoff, with the way it looks now.
Just to be clear, the water hasn't been dropping continuously during the past three drier-than-normal years. For instance, as recently as April 2013, Lake Oroville was roughly 90 percent full. In late May 2013, Folsom Lake, pictured last in this series of images, was about 75 percent full. Both reservoirs fell to low levels during the dry, dry fall of 2013, then recovered a little during late-season rains. And then -- much lower than normal in the spring after a season with scarce mountain snow and very little runoff -- the plunge to today's levels began.
Click the arrows on each image below to see the difference.