1.Take, for example, Shasta Lake, the largest water reservoir in California, which is at just 48% of its historical average storage level for this time of the year.
Shasta Lake supplies about one-fifth of the Golden State's developed water supply.
George Rose / Getty Images
2.In fact, its water level is the lowest it's been since at least 1976, exposing Martian-like terrain that's been underwater for decades.
George Rose / Getty Images
3.The problem extends beyond California, though. Water levels at Lake Mead, the country's largest manmade reservoir, have dropped low enough to expose one of its three intake valves, meaning that — for the first time since 1971 — it can no longer draw in water.
4.Just a week ago, boaters at Lake Mead found a barrel, exposed by dropping water levels, that contained the remains of a suspected murder victim from the late '70s or '80s. New human remains were then discovered at the lake on Saturday — and authorities expect to find more as the drought deepens.
Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images
5.The Enterprise Bridge below once spanned the waters of Lake Oroville, the second largest reservoir in California. Now, it crosses little more than a trickle, with the lake at just 55% of its total capacity.
Josh Edelson / AFP via Getty Images
6.Perhaps nothing illustrates the crisis better than these photos comparing Lake Powell in summer 2021, which itself saw historic lows...
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
7....and spring 2022, which saw water levels drop — again — to their lowest level since the lake was created by damming the Colorado River in 1963.
Lake Powell, along with Lake Mead, supplies water to 40 million people in seven western states.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
8.Here's Lone Rock Beach on Lake Powell in 2021:
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
9.And here it is in late March of this year:
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
10.Low water levels at Lake Mead have left a bathtub ring along its banks — one that continues to grow by the year.
Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images
11.Ditto at Lake Powell, which has dropped 44 feet in the past year alone.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
12.Literal tumbleweeds now blow across the dry, cracked earth once submerged beneath Lake Powell.
Rj Sangosti / Denver Post via Getty Images
13.This boat ramp at Lake Powell doesn't even come close to touching the water anymore.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
14.The water shortage also threatens the region's energy supply: Lake Powell is currently just 33 feet above the minimum power pool, or the threshold needed for the Glen Canyon Dam to be able to generate electricity.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
15.Similarly, Lake Oroville's Edward Hyatt Power Plant might be forced to shut down if water levels continue to drop.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
16.The images are apocalyptic.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
17.Were it not for the trees and sky in the distance, the landscape around Shasta Lake might be confused for that of another planet.
George Rose / Getty Images
18.Houseboats look more like interplanetary spacecraft than aquatic recreational vehicles.
George Rose / Getty Images
19.And they compete for increasingly limited space as the lake shrinks.
Ucg / UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
20.No, this is not a major international canal. It's a line of houseboats in a depleted Lake Oroville.
Josh Edelson / AFP via Getty Images
21.Signs of the crisis are everywhere, like on the piers supporting this bridge near Redding, California.
George Rose / Getty Images
22.A marooned boat here, an unnecessary buoy there.
Josh Edelson / AFP via Getty Images
23.No swimming. No fishing. And most dire, no water.
Brian Van Der Brug / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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