Shocking before-and-after photos of California's mountains make what's happening to the planet obvious

The evidence of a warming planet is all around us.

One place that makes this startlingly clear is California's Sierra Nevada mountain range, where the current snowpack is at the lowest it has been for 500 years, according to a study published online Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The shrinking snow levels, linked to the state's devastating drought, will likely take a toll on the water supplies of farms and cities, reduce the amount of hydroelectric power available, and make wildfires more likely, according to the study's researchers.

Here are some photos that reveal the extent of the problem in stark but stunning beauty.

CHECK OUT: Remarkable before-and-after photos make it undeniably clear we're ruining our planet

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California is in the midst of a record drought that started in 2012, causing authorities to restrict water use across the state for the first time. The drought's severity is especially clear in the Sierra Nevada (pictured here), where the snowpack April 1 was just 5% of its historical average.

California gets 80% of its precipitation during winter, and the Sierra Nevada snowpack plays a vital role, providing 30% of the state's water supply.

In the new study, scientists pieced together the April 1 snowpack conditions over the entire 400-mile Sierra Nevada range for the past 500 years. They chose April because that's when snow in the Sierra starts to melt due to increased rain and higher temperatures.

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