Northern California's rivers and streams are peaking this week with runoff from snowmelt.
It's an early peak that has water agencies calling the state's water situation severe.

The early runoff makes for beautiful pictures and scenery but the rivers are peaking nearly a month early. On top of that California's Department of Water Resources said the levels are 39% lower than usual.

The department's chief meteorologist Elissa Lynn said the runoff levels reached a critically low stage this past week. The state has not seen this dry of a season since the drought years of 1987 through 1992.

Lynn said the early runoff indicates signs of global climate change, in part because early runoff has taken place across the entire western United States.