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Photos show difference in water levels at California's Lake Oroville from 2021 to today
Incredible pictures show California's Lake Oroville full of water following a crippling drought that left it at a critically low level.
Stunning images of the Enterprise Bridge provide a comparison between it in July of 2021 and June 2023 - when the reservoir was filled completely for the first time since 2012.
In late 2021, Oroville's water levels dipped to their lowest ever at just over 628 feet, or 24 percent capacity. Whereas now, levels are measuring at 100 percent capacity, and 127 percent of where they usually are around this time of year.
Lake Oroville in California in 2021, when the major West Coast reservoir sat at a dangerously low level
Now, the reservoir is 100 percent full, following a year that included a record amount of rainfall and snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains
Lake Oroville in California is one of the many important reservoirs in the American West that reached a critically low level during the drought, but is now filled to the brim
The improving drought conditions in California are a 'stark difference' from the last three years, according to California Department of Water Resources director Karla Nemeth, who spoke to ABC News about the reservoir's levels.
Oroville, which is capable of holding up to 3.5million acre-feet of water, receives most of its flow from snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains in April.
Some parts of the Sierra Nevada mountains received as much as 200 percent more snowpack than normal this year due to the nearly dozen atmospheric rivers that hit the West Coast this winter.
An atmospheric river is a narrow corridor of concentrated moister, or, water vapor, carried in the air from the tropics. They can bring with them significant bouts of rain.
Melting snowpack is a major contributor to the nearly full reservoirs in California.
'It's refreshing to see Lake Oroville and other State Water Project (SWP) reservoirs like San Luis near or at capacity,' Nemeth said.
The San Luis Reservoir in Merced, California, is measuring at about 99 percent full. In April, it was sitting at 114 percent of its historical average.
This time last year, the reservoir sat at less than half capacity and continued to lose water in the warmer months.
The excessive regional rain, snow and flooding this year have turned the areas surrounding both reservoirs from brown, dry landscapes, to lush green ones.
A boat departs a dock at Lake Oroville on June 15, 2023 in Oroville, California. After several winter storms that brought record snowfall to California's Sierra Nevada mountains, Lake Oroville, California's second largest reservoir, is at 100 percent capacity
In an aerial view, water is released on the main spillway at Lake Oroville on June 15, 2023 in Oroville, California
Satellite pictures showing the difference in the San Luis Reservoir between last summer and now
California's largest reservoir, about 120 miles north of Lake Oroville, is also close to full - reaching almost 97 percent capacity last week.
In April, when most reservoirs were measuring near completely full, the DWR announced that the State Water Project would be delivering 100 percent allocation for the first time in more than 15 years.
This means that officials are monitoring the strategic release of water in the reservoir as water continues to flow into the lake in order to avoid flooding that could occur as the snowpack melts more quickly in the warmer months.