Normally, by September, the drive north from Sacramento on Interstate 5 showcases vast stretches of flooded rice fields on both sides, farms bustling with tractors and workers preparing for fall harvest.

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As drought endures for a third year with record-breaking temperatures and diminishing water supplies, more than half of California's rice fields are estimated to be left barren without harvest — about 300,000 out of the 550,000 or so in reported acres, provisional data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows. This year, rice is estimated to account for just 2% of total planted acres across the state.

Farmers in the Sacramento River Valley received almost none of their usual water allocation. However, farmers on the east side of the Central Valley, which use water from Lake Oroville, were able to receive about 75% of their allocation. The result, the Chronicle reports, is that despite the general decline in rice cultivation, farmers on the east side were able to plant more: "Meanwhile, in Butte County, lush green fields can still be seen from space, as shown in the imagery above from the European Space Agency's Sentinel satellite. Butte County farmers actually planted slightly more acres of rice than last year."