
California is in the midst of one of its most devastating droughts in history, so the state has been forced to draw from reservoir lakes at an unsustainable rate to supply thirsty households and parched farmers with life-giving water.

The result is a landscape transformed. Shocking before and after photos of California's Folsom Lake and Lake Oroville reveal the undeniably shriveling effects of three years of little to no rain up and down the Golden State's vital agricultural belt.

Bridges cross parched pits that where they once spanned blue lakes, boats and docks drift closer and closer into cramped channels where once there was wide open water and dams hold back nothing but air as the state's can do nothing but do what it can to preserve what's left and pray more will soon fall from the sky.

Before: Historic droughts have devastated waterways up and down parched California. Here, the Enterprise Bridge spans the Lake Oroville in Butte County, California in July 2011.

After: Here, the Enterprise Bridge spans the same reservoir, which has dwindled to a mere trickle in 2014 as California is forced to draw alarming amounts of water from its vanishing reservoirs

As California lawmakers moved a nearly $7.6 billion water bond to the November ballot, federal meteorologists said on Thursday that the state's ongoing drought has appeared to level off, though conditions remain 'extreme' in 80 percent of the state.

'Areas of dryness and drought remained unchanged,' according to the National Drought Mitigation Center, based at the University of Nebraska, despite epic storms that have intermittently lashed parts of both Northern and Southern California.

Torrential rains early this month triggered lethal mudslides and flash floods in the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles, and thunderstorms both eased and complicated the work of firefighters battling wildfires this week in Northern California.

But those storms 'were pretty much a drop in the bucket,' said Richard Tinker, a drought expert with the federal government's Climate Prediction Center.

Nothing to hold back: Nearly 82 percent of California is experiencing 'extreme' drought while 58 percent is experiencing 'exceptional' drought--the most severe there is. Reservoirs like Folsom Lake in Folsom, California are now feeling the extreme squeeze of thirsty households and farms. At left, Folsom Dam holds back a reservoir brimming with water in July 2011, while the same dam holds little but air at right in 2014

Vanishing act: Bidwell Marina at Lake Oroville is seeing its boats and docks moving closer together as what was once open water shrinks down into increasingly tighter channels. (2011 at left, 2014 at right)

Long drought: Like Folsom Dam, Oroville Dam has very little water to hold back these days. Low water levels are visible behind the dam at Lake Oroville on August 19, 2014 in Oroville, California (right) as the severe drought in California continues for a third straight year

Nowhere to go: As the water in Lake Oroville continues to dwindle from the historic drought, boats at its marina are losing space to park atop the shrinking surface

'Any rain this time of year - while a bonus - doesn't really have much of an effect on the drought,' Tinker said.

Nearly 82 percent of the state is experiencing 'extreme' drought, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map, which is updated weekly by the center. Fifty-eight percent of the state, meanwhile, is withering under 'exceptional' drought, which is the most severe measure on the center's scale.

The figures, while sobering, indicated a pause in what had been a seemingly inexorable expansion of the drought across the nation's most populous state and most important agricultural producer. The percentage of the state gripped by the drought has been relatively unchanged for the past couple of weeks.

Back in 2011, the Enterprise Bridge spanned a brimming reservoir, but things have changed drastically since the lake's tributary, the Feather River, has slowed to a nearly nothing thanks to the 3-year drought

Now in 2014, the difference is stark. Lake Oroville is more of a canyon and all California can do is pray for rain and do what they can to conserve the little they have left

Tinker added that the state's major reservoirs in aggregate were at 59 percent of the historical average—low, but not as low as the 41 percent recorded during the 1976-77 drought.

Only a handful of smaller Central Coast dams, he said, had fallen below those 1977 levels, a situation that lawmakers are seeking to address with the water bond proposed for the upcoming ballot.

Made more urgent as the drought has strained California's water supply to crisis proportions, funds raised by selling bonds would shore up the state's water infrastructure, underwriting projects that include improved water storage, flood control, groundwater cleanup, drinking and wastewater treatment and investments to address climate change.

Verdant: The marina at Oroville Lake, here in 2011, is the picture of serenity. Recent serious storms in Northern and Southern California have helped give the state a very small reprieve during the 3-year drought, but the effects have been described as a 'drop in the bucket'

Barren: Much of what was once an engorged reservoir is now gone at Oroville. Shockingly, only a handful of Central Coast dams have fallen below the historically low 1977 levels

Days of plenty: Here, the Green Bridge passes over Lake Oroville near the Bidwell Marina in 2011. Notice the trees and shrubs that grow right against the man-made lake's edge

Days of drought: Fast forward to 2014 and even the massive pillars holding up the bridge can be completely seen at the lakes edge, where a wide swath of parched dirt spans between what's left of the water and the tree line



